


Break The Rules

by speck_of_dust



Category: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger
Genre: Don't mind me- I'm just lowkey in love with my own characters, F/F, I am an evil author, The gays are taking over the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:27:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 48,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27659486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speck_of_dust/pseuds/speck_of_dust
Summary: After manifesting as a Pyrokinetic, Marella Redek is banished to Exillium. The rules there dictate that waywards can't talk or show their face- and they definitely can't fall in love. But for a silver eyed Hydrokinetic, Marella might be willing to break the rules.[Marella/Linh pairing. GXG, obviously- don't read if you've got a problem with that!]
Relationships: Dex Dizznee & Marella Redek, Keefe Sencen/Tam Song, Marella Redek/Linh Song
Comments: 126
Kudos: 47





	1. z e r o

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Evil author cackling*
> 
> Welcome to my terribly wonderful story! It's already posted under the account A very obsessed fangirl on FanFiction.net, so rest assured, I am not stealing her work. I am her. She is me. We are one. And we will take over the world.
> 
> I mean. Um. You heard nothing.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for clicking on my Marellinh fanfiction! I hope you enjoy.

_The rules are there for a reason._

Rules are made to be broken.

_Girls date boys._

Cover your face.

_Boys date girls._

Don't talk. To anyone.

_Pyrokinesis is illegal._

Above all, do NOT fall in love.

_Breaking the rules has consequences._

Marella's broken all of the rules.

_If you break them, you'll regret it._

For a silver eyed Hydrokinetic, she'd break them all again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, dear readers, and welcome to my story! It's got lots of gay and lots of angst and lots of poorly disguised Hayley Kiyokos. Well, just one, actually. But that's still more than there should be. 
> 
> So, this takes place about a year before Sophie would show up, so Marella and Dex are in level one. There are a few things about this universe that differ from canon...
> 
> -First and foremost, Marella manifests when she's a level one, far before Sophie can show up.
> 
> -Two, I don't know if Dex and Marella were friends before Sophie came- I don't think so- but they are here! Read the title, this is not Dexella, but their friendship is cute.
> 
> -Three, I'm not sure if Marella got bullied at Foxfire pre Sophie- again, I don't think so- but I'M THE AUTHOR NOW!
> 
> -Four, Sophie Foster does not exist.
> 
> -Five, Stina is basically one dimensional.
> 
> -Six, obviously, Marella and Linh are sapphic. Read the summary, they're dating! Eventually.
> 
> -Seven, Phillip dies. (Sorry, Hamilfans.)
> 
> I think that's it, so please comment and thanks so much for reading!


	2. i

"Be honest, Dex- were you the one who slipped Fitz Vacker that eye color changing elixir?" Marella asks, grinning as she shovels mashed carnissa roots into her mouth.

Dex smiles, dimples flashing and periwinkle eyes sparkling. " _Mayyybe..._ "

Marella laughs without forcing it, something becoming increasingly less frequent. "You're brilliant, Dex."

"I know."

Based on personality, Dex and Marella aren't exactly expected to be friends. Marella likes to spend her time gossiping and baking. _Trying_ to bake, anyway- she typically ends up burning most of it. On the other hand, Dex likes making elixirs and pulling pranks, though none as epic as the legendary Great Gulon Incident that had graced Foxfire a year ago- a year before Marella arrived at the school too.

The one thing that the two have in common is the fact that they are both outcasts. Misfits. Dex has a Bad Match for parents and triplets for siblings, and that doesn't make him very popular among the prestigious nobles of Foxfire. For Marella, on the other hand, everyone knows about her mother's instability, causing people to either over-pity her or avoid her, acting like it's contagious. Marella doesn't help her case by being overly bitter at the world for its unfairness, and by gossiping about everything. Even if people overlooked her family situation and got to know her, they'd probably find her annoying. Dex calls her that sometimes- jokingly, but Marella can never shake the fear that he really thinks that. That no one could ever really like her.

"Hey, look!" someone jeers. Stina, maybe? Marella can't bring herself to bother looking, but knows that Stina is a frequent tormenter. Something splatters against the back of Marella's hair, cold and slimy, and she grumbles something about how hard it was to perfectly style each of those small braids. Dex hands her a napkin and she whispers a thank you, trying her best to wipe the back of her head. "It's the loser couple!" the jeering voice continues.

Contrary to popular belief, Marella and and Dex _aren't_ a couple. Marella thinks Dex might have crushed on her at the beginning of their friendship- after all, she is a pretty, pixielike blonde girl- but he seems to have settled into being comfortable with their friendship status, not wanting anything more... romantic.

Which is good, for Marella. Because she's never felt any hint of a crush towards a boy, not once in her life. Dex's dimples show whenever she points that out, teasing "What about Wonderboy?" Wonderboy- more commonly known as Fitz Vacker, though the nickname is more accurate- is the most popular boy in Foxfire, and nearly all the girls love him. Those who don't are enamored with his best friend, Keefe Sencen- the perpetrator of the aforementioned Great Gulon Incident himself.

One time, when Marella was staying late at school, not wanting to go home to her mother on one of her bad days, she overheard some of the gossipy girls giggling about crushes. Boys, of course. They mentioned a fluttery feeling, a heat in the cheeks, rapid heartbeats and inexplicable giddiness. And Marella was shocked to realize that she did feel that way about someone. A Vacker, even.

Wonderboy's sister, Princess Prettypants. Or Biana. Marella isn't picky about which name is used.

Dex and Marella are the kind of friends who tell each other everything. So keeping this- this new realization about herself, that she likes girls like boys do- a secret from Dex didn't feel right. Even so, she couldn't look him in the eyes as she confessed.

_"So, um, Dex," Marella mumbled. "I have a crush on..."_

_"Hey, Marella, I'm very flattered, but I just don't-"_

_"Not you, idiot!" Marella exclaimed, sticking out her tongue._ Gross, _she thought._

_Dex's dimples made an appearance. "I know. But you looked really stressed and I figured making a joke would calm you down. So who is it? And please, for the love of mallowmelt, do NOT say Wonderboy."_

_"Princess Prettypants," Marella mumbled, hiding behind her hair. "Who, as the name might imply, is very much a girl, and I am also a girl, so if you think that's gross and don't want to be my friend anymore that's totally okay-"_

_"Hey. Hey. Mare. Breathe," Dex said. Marella hadn't noticed she was hyperventilating until now, but she obliged, taking deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. "It's okay. I'm still your friend. My parents are a bad match, Mare- I know you can't control who you 'like', and even if we're told that a type of romance is wrong, that doesn't mean it's correct. Besides, no type of love is gross. Well, it's all gross- but no type of love is grosser than another. Okay?"_

_"Okay," Marella whispered. Part of her even believed it._

Something else splatters on the back of Marella's uniform, making it soggy and smelly and generally unwearable. Marella sighs. She'll have to change out of it, meaning she'll get dress coded for the third time this week. (It's not her fault she hates capes and loves flannel!) Marella pushes herself up from the table and starts trudging towards the cafeteria door. She's not looking forward to the extra trip to the locker for a change of clothes- today's flavor is jalapeño peppers. _Thanks a lot, Elwin._

She's not watching where she's going, which is exceptionally stupid of her. She should have known better, she realized too late, as Stina Heks "accidentally" crashes into her, holding a pitcher of lushberry juice. The purple liquid splatters all over Marella, soaking her to the bone. Her head aches from the noise as laughter erupts from the surrounding tables.

"Oops," says Stina mockingly, in a voice much higher than her usual tone. Not a speck of juice is on her clothes, and she smirks, dumping whatever's left in the pitcher on Marella's head. Her ruined hair falls in her face, limp and darkened. "Sorry, Marella. Didn't see you there- you're such a loser that you've practically turned invisible!" The other students howl with mirth.

Marella fights back tears and continues on, utterly humiliated. Her soaked clothes are uncomfortable and freezing. In the eyes of the other students, she's not much more than a lump of garbage, which is about what she feels like right now. Smelly and soggy and worthless.

"Look at that!" Maruca, lady-in-waiting of the Princess Prettypants, jeers. Biana, who is sitting next to her and nibbling on a butterblast, looks away. Marella's face burns harder. Her crush on Princess Prettypants has mostly faded, but the girl's very existence still embarrasses her as she remembers how smitten she'd been. "She's too pathetic to even fight back!"

Despite her best efforts, Marella's feet stay frozen in place as an orange sludge flies towards her face, landing right between her eyes. Some of it drips down into her mouth, but even the sweet flavor doesn't do much to comfort her. The sludge burns her already stinging eyes, and against her will, a small tear slips out. Mocking laughter explodes as a small whimper escapes Marella's lips. Before she can start crying in front of her entire school, Marella bolts.

Fifteen feet from the door, a leg sticks out and Marella trips, arms flailing wildly before she lands on the floor. Her arms stick out to catch her, but that doesn't do much- only hurting her left arm more before her face crashes into the ground. Her shin whacks against the table, and Marella can't help but yelp in pain. Everything hurts as she lays sprawled on the floor, battered and bruised and drenched and completely embarrassed.

No matter how much she doesn't it want to, a sob breaks out, and then she can't stop crying, even as the raucous guffawing and taunts of the crowd grow louder. She doesn't have the will to pick herself up, so she tries her best to hide her head as the howling feels like its a hammer smashing her brain, thunderous and distant and fading to background noise.

A hand touches her back, but it's gentler, softer. Not like the rough hands that shove her against walls on particularly bad days. Dex helps her stand up, and she buries her head in his shoulder. Most of the time she hates her pixielike frame, but her tiny stature makes it easier to hide. Distantly, she's aware that her tears and (probably snot, ew, and) already soggy self is getting Dex's cape wet, but she can't quite bring herself to care as Dex leads her out of the cafeteria.

"Shh, it's okay," he whispers. Marella doesn't want to respond, or maybe she just can't. "You left your clothes in your locker yesterday, right? After you got dress coded?"

"Mmm hmm," Marella agrees, voice barely more than a squeak.

"Good," Dex says. "'Cause I'd offer you an extra uniform of mine, but I don't think it'd fit you." The joke comforts Marella a little- Dex is a full eight inches taller than she is, and loves to tease her about that. "We're at your locker," he continues.

Slowly, reluctantly, Marella lifts her head from his shoulder, and wipes her eyes, forcing herself to stop crying. They are indeed at her locker.

"Brace yourself for the jalapeño," Dex warns her.

She forces a faint smile before sticking her tongue out just the slightest bit, barely brushing it against the DNA detecting strip. "Ow! Hot!" she splutters as the locker clicks open. Standing on her tiptoes, she grabs her new outfit- a blue flannel shirt and jeans. Shivering slightly from the cold of being in drenched clothes for so long, she makes her way towards the girls' bathroom and hopes that no one is in there. Thankfully, it's empty.

Dex pauses outside the door, obviously not going to follow her inside. "Um. Thank you," Marella says.

Dex gives her a small smile, dimples barely showing. "Any time."

Marella grabs a bundle of paper towels before disappearing into a stall. Her damp clothes are _gross_ , she thinks as she dumps them in a heap. The paper towels are a pain to dry herself off with, but they're better than nothing. After changing into her flannel and jeans, she feels slightly more comfortable. Her old clothes get thrown into a plastic bag she brought with her, and she exits the stall, examining her face in the mirror. It looks a lot like she's been ugly crying. Which she has. Hoping to at least diminish the redness around her eyes, she splashes some water on her face. Although she doesn't have a brush, her hair is an absolute mess, so she tries her best to comb it with her fingers.

The bell rings just as Marella swings open the door to leave the bathroom, signaling that it's time to go to PE. Marella groans- after ability detecting, it's her least favorite class. The entire school is there, a hoard of tormentors. After lunch today, encountering them is the last thing she wants to do, but she can't exactly skip class- she's in enough trouble as it is for the constant uniform violations. Her hand latches onto Dex for support, and he squeezes as they walk to the gym.

"Who's ready for the ultimate splotching match?" Lady Alexine announces. Most people in the room cheer- Marella shrugs. Out of all the activities, it's not her favorite, but at least she'll be out early, so it's basically a free period. "Grab a partner!"

As always, Marella and Dex start out against each other. They're fairly evenly matched, but Marella knows that Dex will let her win, not wanting her to be covered in paint right after ruining one pair of clothes with sludge, slime, and lushberry juice. "Three, two, one, splotch!" Lady Alexine declares. As predicted, Dex is soon splattered with purple paint. He laughs and high fives Marella before walking over to the benches.

Marella's next opponent is Stina. She gulps- not wanting to be afraid of the other girl, but she makes it easy. For one thing, Stina's beanpole body practically dwarfs Marella's petite frame- no hate to dwarves or anything, Marella doesn't want to start a multispecial war. And Stina's the reason for Marella's recent humiliation at lunch- which Marella really does _not_ want to think about.

Evidently, though, Stina does. "I see you've changed out of your wet clothes," she practically sings. "Pity- I was looking forward to you going around like a drowned rat all day. Although really, seeing you cry in front of the whole school was a pretty sweet consolation prize. I knew you'd be embarrassed, but I had no idea you'd act like such a _baby._ "

Marella grits her teeth, fighting her filling eyes with everything she has in her. Bursting into tears while the whole school watches _yet again_ is the last thing she needs- she may as well flee the Lost Cities if that happens. Stina's right, she honestly is an overdramatic baby. Being covered in lushberry juice was embarrassing, tripping kinda hurt, but she can't believe she'd been weak enough to start wailing and sobbing like that. _Honestly. What a mess._

"Shut up, Stina," she growls.

Stina pretends to think about it. "No, I don't think I will. What's the matter, you think talking about how pathetic you are will make you go crying for mommy again? Oh wait, I forgot- you don't have a functional mother."

"I thought I told you to shut up!" Marella spits. Humiliating her is one thing, but reminding her that everything good about her mom is essentially gone is a whole different type of pain. Fury burns in Marella, hot and fiery.

"And I said no," Stina replies, calm as ever. "And I was thinking, you know how the whole school- save for your wimpy boyfriend, of course- thinks you're a great target for bullying already? Well, imagine how they'd react when they find out your secret."

"I don't _have_ a secret," Marella insists, though her mind is racing. _Could Stina know-?_

"Oh, really? So you don't mind if I tell the whole school? All right, then." Panic flares in Marella, but she's helpless to stop it as Stina cups her hands over her mouth. "Hey everyone!" she calls. "Marella Redek is a freak! She's in love- or lusts after, at least- another girl! Biana Vacker, to be exact! She's a freak!"

"Now, Stina," Lady Alexine scolds, but everyone in the room- every single Foxfire student- is laughing, making noises of disgust, pointing at her- and that drowns it out. It all fades to background noise as blood starts roaring in Marella's ears. The fiery feeling in her chest grows hotter and hotter, burning and encompassing her entire body, until she thinks she might explode.

And explode she does, as fire pours out of her and rushes towards Stina. The bully screams as the flames lick her, and Marella smirks. _Good._ She's finally receiving an ounce of torment that Stina inflicted on her. More fire rushes from Marella, eleven years of pent up anger and bitterness and pain finally being released in the form of a blazing inferno. The laughter around her turns to screams, and distantly, she hears Dex's voice calling her name, but it all seems slightly muffled. More fire burns- Marella won't be satisfied until the entire world is engulfed in the flames.

But they're being extinguished already, doused in water by a Level Six Hydrokinetic. The sound of the water splashing brings Marella back to reality, and she stares at what she's done. In stark contrast to the fire previously burning inside- and outside- of her, she now feels cold dread consuming her. Like ice.

She can't say the words. Can't even think them. But when Maruca shouts them out, Marella knows it's true.

"The freak's a pyrokinetic!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Marella! We should go after whoever caused this. Like the author! Attaaaaack-
> 
> Wait.
> 
> Oh.
> 
> Please don't attack. I have a Shady Black Belt Protection Squad ™ on my side!
> 
> And Marella's a pYrOkInEtIc? Who could've seen that coming? Well, anyone who read the summary, I guess. Or Nightfall.
> 
> Anyway, I definitely am an evil author! Things do get better for her, though. 
> 
> ...Eventually...


	3. ii

Marella's face burns. Not literally, but her hands actually are smoking, and the feeling of heat that needs to be released returns as prodigies start scrambling away from her like Pyrokinesis is contagious. Lady Alexine makes a hail on her imparter- Marella can't make out what she's saying, but a group of Hydrokinesis mentors show up, so she probably asked for someone to be there in case Marella loses control again.

The only person in the entire school who isn't acting afraid of Marella is Dex Dizznee, whose friendship Marella knows she probably does not deserve. Periwinkle eyes wide, he walks over to her from the bleachers and moves out his hand as though reaching for hers, before changing his mind halfway through. Marella can't exactly blame him- her hands are almost on fire- but it still stings.

For once, Dex seems to have no idea what to say. If the roles were reversed, Marella would be speechless too. He can't say "it's okay," because it isn't, and he can't say something true, because that wouldn't do much in the way of comforting. But he can stay by her side. And that is what he does.

Marella wishes she could hold his hand. Not because she's interested in him- to her dismay, she still very much likes girls- but just for something to squeeze and someone to squeeze back, a physical reminder that, out of all the enemies, there is one person there. One person to support her.

But since her hand is probably about four hundred degrees, that's not a good idea.

"Everyone, calm down," says Lady Alexine finally. The gym had been in silence before she spoke, save for the frightened whispers and mutters that seemed louder than shouts.

"How are we supposed to calm down!?" one of the Drooly Boys wails- Marella can't remember his name. "The freak will kill us all!" She'd always thought of the Drooly Boys as kind of lame, but their group and her mini group with Dex were always civil to one another, in School Loser Solidarity. Apparently, even they, who can be extraordinarily uncool and kind of gross but never mean, hate her now.

The _freak._ That's what her new name is. No one other than Dex will ever think of her as Marella from now on. Even Mare or Ella would be okay, and Marella _despises_ nicknames. Still, better than "the freak."

 _And what makes him think I'll kill them all!?_ Marella wonders indignantly. People don't automatically assume that Telepaths would always be reading their minds, or that Flashers would blind them all. Why is she any different?

_Maybe because I just burned half the gym..._

So Marella really is dangerous, she realizes. Really is a freak.

The thought makes her chest tighten, breaths getting quicker and shorter as her face grows hot and she thinks she's about to be crushed under the pressure of all these stupid feelings. Just as Lady Alexine says "She's not going to kill us all," spurts of fire shoot out of her hand. The nearby Hydrokinetics extinguish it instantly, but it still brings a whole lot of screaming and hurled insults.

Marella's eyes burn- great, she's about to burst into tears with all of Foxfire watching for the second time in a day. Really, though, that should be the least of her worries, considering everybody knows her deepest secret and saw her manifest a dangerous and _illegal_ ability.

"Marella," she hears, and it's her real name, not _the freak._ Dex, then. "Shh. Calm down. Take deep breaths. There are healthy ways to cope with hard times, this is not one of them. Think... cold thoughts? Sorry, I have no idea what the standard procedure is for calming someone with Pyrokinesis."

He hopefully meant the words just for her, but Stina calls "There is no standard procedure! That's why they're _illegal_! She should be Exiled!"

Shouts of assent make their way across the room.

 _Exile._ Exile is dark and gloomy and bleak and nothing like Marella, who is bright and loud and funny. She'd spend her life there, surrounded by filth and despair. Silent except for the moans of the other prisoners. Who are mostly ogres and murderers that will probably kill _her,_ but that's fine because being dead sounds at least a bit better than living her life in Exile. And that's the fate she'd just condemned herself to. Imprisoned in the center of the Earth and wishing she was dead.

Marella is twelve years old. She had an entire future in front of her, with manifesting as an Empath to help her mom and pulling pranks with Dex and gossiping about the Vackers and squealing about ships with classmates she doesn't entirely hate and plotting revenge on Stina and graduating Foxfire and- well, not meeting a boy and getting married, but maybe she could be cool and single. The point is, she had a literal eternity ahead of her, and she burned that chance to the ground, metaphorically and literally.

 _Exile._ She's never been there, but she's seen pictures, heard rumors. Could she escape? Now, that was a dumb thought. First of all, that's impossible, and second, there could be a telepath reading her thoughts right now and she should probably not incriminate herself any more, but then again, why bother, because she'll be locked in Exile either way, Exile, Exile, _Exile-_

Another burst of fire, another spray of water. Marella is burning things every time her emotions run high, and if that's how it'd be for the rest of her life, then she probably should be locked up in Exile, for everyone else's safety.

Dex, who is not always known for making the wisest choices, deems it safe to wrap his arm around Marella's shoulder. She doesn't think it's as good of an idea, but after not burning him, admits to herself that she's grateful. Tentatively, ready to jerk away if she feels fire about to explode out of her, she leans her head on his shoulder. With one ear covered by the fabric of his cape, and the other covered by her left hand- apparently she can't burn herself- the hatred of the crowd is mostly blocked out. Muffled, at least.

It's rather peaceful, she decides as she closes her eyes.

As is the case with most good things, it can't last long. Dex gently lifts Marella's arm from covering her ear, whispering her name. She glares for a second, annoyed to no longer be blocking out the world. But it was probably the right decision, she realizes a moment later, when Dame Alina's fake-nice voice purrs "Where is the Pyrokinetic prodigy Marella Redek?" Her electric blue eyes, framed by heavily mascaraed eyelashes, narrow.

Marella wishes she'd manifested as a Vanisher instead of a Pyrokinetic, because for one thing, she wouldn't be in this position in the first place, and for another, she'd be able to disappear when hundreds of fingers point Dame Alina's piercing gaze in her direction.

"Come with me to my office, Miss Redek," she orders. Her voice sounds sweet, but also vaguely threatening, like if Marella refuses, her throat will be ripped out. Despite that, she wants to refuse. Dame Alina repeats the phrase, voice even sweeter, and suddenly Marella wants to go to the office of this nice person, and her legs start walking before the feeling disappears and she realizes she'd been Beguiled.

_Oh, so when SHE uses her ability to harm others..._

"Not you, Mr..." Her voice trails off, and Dex's jaw clenches at his name being forgotten. "...Deck-"

Dex sputters indignantly, and Marella huffs as well. It's not exactly a difficult name or anything, and despite her entire world (literally) crumbling to ashes around her, she doesn't want her friend's identity to be diminished.

"It's Dex, actually," she corrects.

"And I'm coming with her."

A high, fake laugh escapes Alina's glossy red lips. "My sincerest apologies, _Dex._ And no, you are not coming with her."

Dex nods, his periwinkle eyes moving slightly out of focus. "Okay." Marella's almost out the door when he realizes and starts running, blocked by some Mentor Marella can't recognize. It feels like a punch to the gut- this was terrifying before, but without her best friend by her side, she thinks she might faint on the spot. Or start burning things. _Anything but that..._

In a daze, she follows Alina, stumbling up stairs until they reach the top floor of the pyramid. The entire room is pink, pink, pink, with pink flowers on the pink desk and pink-framed pictures of cats hung on the pink walls surrounding a spotless pink carpet. Marella normally doesn't mind pink, but this is a bit of an overload.

Alina sits down on a very soft and fluffy looking green- just kidding, it's pink- armchair. She gestures to the hard metal folding chair on the other side of the desk and orders Marella to have a seat. Marella rolls her eyes and obliges, one leg hanging down normally and the other resting on the chair, bent at the knee. She's never been able to sit like a normal elf, let alone like a 'lady.' Alina sniffs indignantly but doesn't comment on her way of sitting.

"So, Miss Redek," she nearly sings, voice high pitched and silvery. "First of all, why are you not wearing a Foxfire uniform?"

Marella had nearly forgotten that a flannel shirt and jeans adorns her. Everything at lunch seemed so awful at the time, but it's impossible to feel anything but panic right now. "I got lushberry juice dumped on me at lunch," she mutters. "My uniform was ruined, so I changed into this."

"Hmm," Alina says, sounding like she really doesn't believe Marella. "Well, normally you would receive a week of detention, but it's not exactly like you'll be coming back to the school, right?" She lets out a false and honeyed laugh like she just said something hilarious. Marella squeezes her eyes shut to keep tears from falling. Of course she won't be allowed back to Foxfire, and it's not like she'll miss the bullying, but the other things. She'll miss the great food at lunch and the constant flow of gossip and the pranks Keefe Sencen pulls every other week and the lessons with the exception of Elvin History and _Dex,_ her best friend, there's a good chance she won't ever see him again, and it's not like she got to say goodbye, he was just beguiled into walking away from her after she corrected Dame Alina on his name.

"Haha. Very funny," Marella forces out. Dame Alina, if she has any brains at all (big if), can tell she's being sarcastic, but whatever. It's not like she can get in any more trouble.

_I can't get in any more trouble... hmm..._

"So, I've contacted the council about this _problem-_ "

Anger flares in Marella's chest about being called a problem, the world disappearing for the millionth time today as she grows uncomfortably hot. _I can't get in any more trouble,_ she repeats to herself, blasting fire at Dame Alina's stupid pink chair.

Alina shrieks at such a frequency that Marella's surprised her eardrums still work. "EXTINGUISH IT!" she yelps, dashing to the other side of the room.

"Do I look like a Hydrokinetic to you?" Marella snaps, but she claps her hand over the (honestly quite small) flame to suffocate it. Her hand is unscathed, but the previously pristine chair has an ugly scorch mark on it. The thought gives Marella some kind of satisfaction.

Dame Alina lets out a small whimper and presses herself against a wall as far away from Marella as she can manage. "The council will be here soon," she squeaks. "And you'll have your tribunal."

Tribunal? Why does Marella keep being surprised by these things? At least she should be glad that she's not immediately thrown into Exile, though that will obviously be the outcome. Are they allowed to throw twelve year olds into Exile? They're the council, they can do whatever they want.

"Okay," Marella says.

She leaps to Eternalia after a seemingly endless minute of being silently drilled by Alina's piercing blue eyes. The city is beautiful, but even the sparkles don't improve her mood. It feels like she's walking through syrup as she enters the serious looking, minimally sparkly, and emerald Tribunal Hall and up the silver staircase. Her fingers grip the armrests of the chair on the elevated platform for the accused, but she draws her hands away when they start to smoke. Her eyes focus on her shoes- staring at the twelve giant and bejeweled thrones is too terrifying.

A crowd files in. No Foxfire students, as they are probably moving on with their day, but what looks like every adult elf in the Lost Cities shows up, and- Marella realizes with a small smile- Dex had managed to slip away. He gives her a small wave.

"Please be seated," orders Councillor Emery. The buzzing of the crowd quiets down. "May the accused state their name?"

Marella's voice trembles as she says "Marella Aster Redek."

"Do you promise to answer all questions honestly?" he asks.

Marella nods.

"Out loud, please."

"Yes."

Emery asking that question was probably pretty pointless, because Councillor Oralie comes over and rests her hand on Marella's shoulder to act as the Empath Lie Detector.

"How old are you, Miss Redek?"

"I-I turned twelve last month. Level one at Foxfire," she says. Oralie nods. _Please let this be over soon._

"Is it true that you manifested as a Pyrokinetic?"

Marella feels the all-to-familiar pressure of needing to set something ablaze. Trying her best to force it down- losing control during her tribunal is the _last_ thing she wants to do- she nods.

Emery's eyes narrow. "Out loud, please."

"Yes," Marella whispers. Her hands regrip the armrests for support.

"Oralie?"

"She's telling the truth," says Oralie's soft voice. Marella feels a squeeze on her shoulder.

"In what class were you when this happened?" Emery answers. Next to him, Kenric takes notes.

"Physical Education."

"Tell me exactly what happened. Include details."

Marella gulps. This is a lot harder than mechanical one-or-two word answers. "I was on edge from being humiliated at lunch. We played in an Ulitmate Splotching Match. I was paired up against Stina Heks, one of the girls who bullied me. She teased me about crying at lunch and yelled out one of my secrets to the entire school. Everyone started laughing at me and I felt like I was about to explode. Then the gym was on fire, and it felt like I was watching from the sidelines until I was brought back to reality and the flames were extinguished."

"Have you lost control since then?"

Marella nods, eyes focused on the polished floor. "Once when I grew scared of the consequences, still in the gym, and once in Dame Alina's office."

Kenric's brow furrows as he wrote that down.

"Does fire erupt every time you are in an emotional situation?" Emery asks.

"So far, yes."

Emery presses his fingers to his temples for an agonizing thirty or so seconds. "What secret did Stina Heks reveal that made you lose control?"

Marella's face grows hot as a sob broke out. Her lips start forming the words, but no sound comes out.

"Is that detail really necessary?" Oralie asks softly.

Emery nods. "We want to make sure we have the full picture. Miss Redek, please answer the question.

"She- she said I- I had a crush- on- on a- g- girl!" Marella wails. Gasps of shock and disgust comes from everyone watching yet again, and history begins to repeat itself as hot anger builds in her chest, fire flowing through her veins, and all she wants is to make this feeling stop, and if the only way to do that is to let flames pour out-

"Marella," Oralie whispers. "Shh. It's okay. Calm down."

It's not okay, very much not okay, but the soothing voice clears Marella's head. Her hands are smoking dangerously, the armrests of the chair beginning to melt.

Emery clears his throat. "Please refrain from burning down Eternalia, Miss Redek. Councillor Terik, I would like you to do a Descrying on her."

Councillor Terik's gaze flickers between Emery and the smoke rising form Marella. "I will not be able to touch her hands," he says.

"Councillor Liora, flareadon gloves, please?" Emery says.

Councillor Liora snaps her fingers and hands the conjured gloves to Terik. Walking over to Marella's platform, he slips them on and rests his gloved hands on hers. He is silent for a minute that feels like a year. "She has great potential for power," he answers. "And great potential for destruction."

So far, it seems like Marella's living up to her potential, she thinks bitterly.

The crowd starts muttering, growing silent with a look from Councillor Emery. "Councillor Noland, please read section four, paragraph eleven of the Intelligent Species Peace Treaty," he orders.

Councillor Noland nods. He opens a scroll and mutters to himself as his eyes scan it. "Section four, Elvin Abilities... Mesmers, Beguilers, Inflictors, Telepaths... here we are! 'After the death of Azar Ekker, the fifth elf to die in a tragedy involving Everblaze, Pyrokinesis is officially banned under Elvin and interspecial law. Any elf to manifest with this dangerous ability is forbidden to use it. Should they break that rule, minors will be sent to Exillium and adults will be exiled.'"

"Thank you, Councillor Noland," Emery says. "Miss Redek has already lost control of her powers three times and admitted to a lack of control over her Pyrokinesis. Am I to assume this counts as breaking the rule?"

Nods come from each of the councillors except Kenric, Oralie, and- surprisingly- Councillor Bronte, or as Marella calls him, Sir Grumpypants. Still, those three elves are a minority, and Marella feels the familiar sensation of fire spark inside of her as Emery places his fingers to his temples and waits.

"Very well then," he says finally. "Marella Aster Redek has been sentenced with banishment to Exillium."

The fire explodes out of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the torture hasn't gotten better yet.
> 
> A few other things you might have noticed...
> 
> 1) Marella's middle name is Aster. It means star. This is not canonical, but I wanted to give her a middle name. I also considered Ember. And yes, I know that according to Unlocked, her middle name is Adene, but I wrote this before Unlocked came out and I don't want to change mine so screw it.
> 
> 2) KENRIC IS STILL ALIVE! And Alina (bleh) is still principal.
> 
> 3) My version of Dame Alina is literally Umbridge from Harry Potter. Probably the real version too.
> 
> 4) I made up the law thing.
> 
> 5) DON'T OUT PEOPLE AS LGBTQ+ BEFORE THEY'RE READY! IT'S RUDE, AND THEY'LL PROBABLY SET YOU ON FIRE!
> 
> (EDITING SIMONE FROM THE FUTURE- Forgot to mention! I have a compilation of LGBTQ+ headcanons, entitled "Keeper of the Queer Citites. Go check it out! I spent an unholy amount of time gathering evidence for ideas actually based on a gut feeling!)


	4. iii

_I didn't even get to say goodbye,_ Marella thinks. _I didn't even get to say goodbye. I'll never see Dex again... or my parents... or... well, no one else, really. I think I have some cousins?_

The thought that only three people would miss her was depressing, but not as depressing as the thought that those three people would _miss her._ And she would miss them. She already did, almost enough for there to be a physical ache.

She'd never see Dex again, get to sit with him at lunch as they ate the baked goods Mrs. Juline baked or the strange candies Mr. Kesler created, get to poke fun at the Vackers and laugh as Dex mixed prank elixirs and Marella exploded them, get to visit his house after school and team up with the triplets in a snowball fight as Dex screamed about betrayal, never get to be his best friend again. Would he find a new best friend, replace her? Or would he go back to eating lunch in the alchemy classroom?

Both thoughts were equally saddening, in different ways. For his sake, she hoped for the former.

And her parents. No matter how unstable her mom was, how busy her dad was, they were still her parents, and she couldn't even form the thought of never seeing them again into a coherent ramble.

_I didn't even get to say goodbye, and now I'm stuck here._

She doesn't even know where she is. Somewhere in the Neutral Territories? The crystal that leaped her here is yellow, and based on Marella's rather limited knowledge of what color crystals went where, that sounds correct.

After having a Hydrokinetic splash her and a Froster freeze her hands (that wasn't fun), some council member- Marella panicked too much to remember who- leapt her here and then left. Wherever "here" is. Unlike most of the Neutral Territories she studied at Foxfire, she can't see any trees in the barren landscape. All that's there is dust, dirt, sand, and gusts of wind blasting her in the face.

It's rather miserable. Is this where she lives now?

The last time Marella was home was maybe eight hours ago, just before leaving for school. She didn't want to leave- she never did- and would give anything to go back. It's only been eight hours, but everything about her house already feels like some vague dream. The cool, slippery wooden floors, the spiral staircases with golden railings, her room with a yellow/orange color scheme, the balconies overlooking the green yard that she wasn't allowed onto after her mother's fall- all of the details are clear in her mind, but none of them feel real anymore.

She knows she'll never go back.

So there's no use pretending this is some very odd school field trip, and soon enough she'll be swinging open the door to reveal the smell of the custard bursts her dad is baking that overshadows the faint scent of medicine her mom drinks to regulate her moods, dwarven music playing in the background.

Though it's noticeably winter in whatever hemisphere she's in, it can't really be _that_ cold, but the chill of the constant wind makes Marella feel like she's going to freeze to death. No, that can't happen. If the worst comes to the worst, she could light a fire to keep herself warm.

Other than the eternal blankness of the ground and the endless sky, Marella is completely alone in this Neutral Territory- until the space in front of her gets very very bright before turning into a tall elf, with creamy brown skin and long black hair. Despite the dark circles under her navy blue eyes, she's fairly attractive- well, all elves are.

"My name is Coach Rohana and I'll be one of your Exilluim coaches," she says brusquely. Her voice is low and rough.

Marella extends a hand, saying in a small voice "My name is-"

"It doesn't matter," Coach Rohana interrupts. Marella shrinks back. "Whatever your name is, at Exilluim, you're just another wayward."

To Marella, losing her identity is one of the worst things that can happen. She's funny, bubbly, gossipy. Slightly annoying and unwaveringly loyal. Everything about Marella's personality was bright and loud. Fiery, even. But Exillium was going to turn her into nothing more than a face, one meaningless person in the crowd among many. Not Marella Aster Redek. Just another wayward.

"Okay," she whispers.

"Now then," Coach Rohana says, and Marella notes her no-nonsense attitude. "I will be telling you everything that is important to know about Exillium. You will be allowed to ask questions at the end. Verbal responses will be discouraged- simply nod if you understand."

Marella nods.

"First, I'll need to verify that these forms have been correctly filled out." She snaps her fingers and a stack of papers appear in her hands. It's made out of the same material as the scroll with the laws that sent Marella here in the first place, with edges slightly frayed. Exillium doubtfully has anything of the best quality, paper included. "Name, Marella Aster Redek."

"Yes," she says. Coach Rohana's glare burns her more violently than Marella's fire could ever do to someone. Cowering, she apologizes, then apologizes for apologizing, then finally has the sense to shut up and nod her head up and down, looking like an idiot.

Coach Rohana lets out a sigh and rolls her eyes, muttering "I hate this job." Louder, she says "Height, four foot eight. Weight, seventy seven pounds."

Marella resists the urge to comment about how awesome her shortness is as she nods.

"Age, twelve years old. Inception date, January fifth," Coach Rohana continues reciting. Feeling sick of repeating this motion over and over again, Marella nods. "Eye color, ice blue. Hair color, golden blonde." Nod. Marella twirls one of her 'golden blonde' braids around her finger. A lot of effort goes into her hair, though she's almost definitely not get to keep styling it at Exillium.

"Special ability-" Marella sucks in a breath. "Pyrokinetic."

Marella distantly knows she should nod, but she doesn't _want_ to, doesn't want to verbally or nonverbally or in any way of communicating affirm that she is a Pyrokinetic.

"I require an answer, Redek," Coach Rohana snaps. Marella bites her lips as she very slowly leans her head back, then tilts it down.

Coach Rohana clears her throat and continues. "Sex, female. Gender, female. Mother, Caprise Redek. Father, Zephyr Redek."

Marella ignores the pang that shoots through her at her parents' names as she nods. The list of information she has to confirm goes on and on and _on_ until finally, Coach Rohana says "This is the last one."

Marella, who's nearly been falling asleep with the robotic and boring nature of this repetitiveness, perks up.

"Address: Not applicable."

Marella's heart sinks, her head droops. Of course she can't go back to her house in the Lost Cities, she knew that already. But the thought never crossed her mind that she doesn't have anywhere else to live.

The pained look on her face must be showing very obviously, but Coach Rohana doesn't seem to notice as she snaps her fingers and the papers disappear. "The next order of business- Redek, are you listening?"

So at least some sort of emotion must show on her face, and it's probably the distracted look that comes from being lost in thought with worries about how to survive without any sort of house or shelter. But Marella forces herself to blink that away and say "Yes" before cursing herself silently and nodding.

Coach Rohana huffs, like she doesn't quite believe Marella. At all. "The next order of business is your uniform. You are, if not the _smallest_ , at least close to being the smallest of all Waywards. After all, you're in the youngest age group, and quite short."

It doesn't quite sound like a compliment coming from her, though it should be. _The coach has to be at least a food taller than me,_ Marella decides, craning her neck to better gauge Coach Rohana's height. Not that it particularly matters, but once the thought enters Marella's mind, she's quite curious.

Marella nods as Coach Rohana continues. "We got you a uniform in the smallest size we have, though it might still be too big. Try it on." She snaps her fingers and hands Marella a pile of clothing.

"There's nowhere to change," Marella mumbles. She knows she isn't supposed to talk, but she doesn't quite know how to communicate that sentence with her hands.

With a long, exaggerated sigh and a massive eyeroll, Coach Rohana snaps her fingers again to conjure a tall divider, grumbling about teenagers. "Technically, I'm only twelve," Marella can't resist pointing out. That earns her another glare. Marella ducks her head and takes the uniform from Coach Rohana, walking to behind the divider.

All of the clothes are in grey or black. The observation leaves Marella feeling slightly disappointed. She likes clothes quite a lot, and doesn't particularly care for wearing neutral colors. Brightly hued clothing- especially flannel, of course- is far superior. But asking Coach Rohana if she can get this in red, yellow, or orange flannel won't do much more than earn her yet another death glare, so she tries to keep her internal monologue complaining to a minimum as she changes into the new uniform.

Black pants that are probably supposed to be fitted, but hang slightly loose. She tries her best to roll up the legs. Her black shirt has sleeves that hang past her hands, and she rolls those up as well. A vest that actually kind of fits her, colored in a dark shade of grey and covered by silver chains, sits atop the shirt. At least now she's warm despite the frigid winds. A long black cape hangs down. Despite how much she hates the capes at Foxfire, she can't deny that the slight sense of familiarity is comforting. The top of the uniform is hooded. It's probably supposed to shadow the waywards' faces, but with Marella's size, the hood practically swallows her. A studded mask covers the lower part of her face.

Marella has no idea how she looks, but _unrecognizable_ is probably the answer.

Another way to make her not Marella Aster Redek, but Just Another Wayward.

"Are you done yet?" Coach Rohana calls.

"Yes!" Marella yells back. The divider vanishes as Coach Rohana conjures it back into the void. She surveys Marella before proclaiming her "Good enough." Snapping her fingers again, she hands Marella a pin. It's round, with a brownish red background, decorated by a yellow and orange flame. As if it isn't obvious enough, the coach explains "It's meant to represent your pyrokinesis. All waywards are required to wear a pin that represents your abilities so we can ensure that there is no cheating with your assignments.

With clumsy fingers, Marella fumbles to pin it to her vest. A visible sign to everyone else that she is dangerous, that she can set them on fire.

"And here is your leaping crystal. Use it to get to class tomorrow. The location changes every day."

Marella takes that as well, slipping it in her pocket. _Don't lose that,_ she tells herself.

"The last thing we need to do is go over rules," Coach Rohana says. If she could speak in a voice that displayed emotion, Marella is sure she would be elated to be almost free of this annoying twelve year old Pyrokinetic. "The first, and most important, is complete anonymity."

That sounds horrible to Marella. She nods.

"No talking to any of your peers, and do not talk to your coaches unless absolutely necessary. You cannot give your name. Do not even show your face."

Sounds lonely. Marella nods.

"You must completely obey every order or assignment. Rudeness or insolence of any kind towards your coaches will not be tolerated. There are no restrictions on how we can punish you."

Not nerve wracking at all. Marella nods.

"And this one- this one is important- no forming bonds of any kind. Acquaintances. Friendship. _Romance._ None of that is allowed."

Marella nods.

"Do not break the rules."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah! Title reference! 
> 
> CHECK OUT MY LGBTQ+ HEADCANONS AND COMMENT BECAUSE THEY'RE REALLY GOOD! Or maybe they're not. You tell me?
> 
> I don't have anything else interesting to say, so thank you so much for reading!


	5. iv

In the morning, far earlier than any elf should be awake, Marella wakes up. The night before, she'd wandered until she found something that could be considered a shelter- a small cave became the solution. It'd been too much walking, and Marella regrets how late she'd stayed up now that it's this ungodly hour, barely past the crack of dawn. She's basically half asleep.

Blearily, she stumbles to the corner where she kept her Exillium uniform and changes into that. It's still too big, and although short girls are the best, Marella can't help but wish she was just a bit taller. Nothing she can do about that, though, so she leaves her old clothes (that wonderful flannel... how she misses it already) in the same corner and digs around in her uniform's pockets.

 _At least it has pockets,_ she thinks optimistically. No matter how cruel elves can be, they will never be evil enough to deny her pockets.

At last, she finds what she's looking for- the leaping crystal that Coach Rohana gave her yesterday. Also in her pockets are a yellow crystal- presumably leading to wherever she is now, so at least she can return to this lovely cave- and her home crystal. Marella had forgotten she still has that, but she always had it on her before. Marella has no idea what the consequences will be if she returns to to the Lost Cities, but doubts they'd be good. Still, it might be worth it to sneak in and bring a bag of some clothes, a toothbrush, maybe a book.

Well, she has time to think about whether or not to decide on that clearly terrible decision later. For now, it's almost time to get to Exillium. Not wanting to risk losing it, she leaves her home crystal with her clothes from yesterday. The yellow crystal has to come with her, obviously, and so does the crystal to get to Exillium in the first place. Marella steps out of her cave, lets the Exillium crystal catch the light, and glitters away.

She reappears somewhere thick with trees. Each one is probably taller than three Marellas stacked on top of each other, and thicker than two standing back to back. Their branches extend upwards in a tangle, almost obscuring her view of the sky, overcast by heavy grey clouds. Unlike woods she would occasionally walk through back home, this one has no path cleared away. Instead, the ground is covered by lumpy roots and fallen branches and plant life she hopes isn't poison ivy. Marella does her best to walk through gratefully, though she can't help but stumble a few times. Finally, the area clears. Trees are still in abundance, but there isn't one within a two foot radius of her at all times.

She continues on until the trees disappear altogether. Just ahead of her is so thick with mist she can't see the ground- or even if there is a ground. An enormous arch protrudes from it, looming in front of her. It's black and metallic, jagged and woven from iron thistles. The center displays a large X symbol, the Exillium logo. (Even though Exillium very clearly starts with an E, which she can't deny bothers her.)

Marella doesn't have much time to think about the stupidity of having a school starting with E represented by an X before something shoots out and grabs her ankle. She yelps and throws her hands behind her as she topples over. Her eyes squeeze shut in terror. When she opens them, she's dangling upside down from that giant arch. The ground is much too far away for her liking.

A figure in red yells "WELCOME TO YOUR DIVIDING!"

She's never heard of this "dividing," which is why it's good when a purple figure explains further. "You have to escape from the rope," says a voice Marella recognizes as Coach Rohana's.

A blue figure adds "Light leaping doesn't count. You have to untie it or break it. This will determine which of us coaches you."

Everything falls silent until whispers start coming from the mist below. Not much detective work is required to figure out they're students, muttering words that don't mean anything to Marella like "right" or "ambi."

"Shut up!" the red coach barks.

A soft, feminine voice from below says something else, sounding sort of like "Be quiet, let her concentrate!"

Marella doesn't need much concentration. The solution is obvious- burn the rope. Her pyrokinesis can be used to her advantage. The only problem is, she needs her hands to touch the rope to do that, since she hasn't yet figured out how to light up her feet. Now that she thinks about it, that should go next on her to-do list. But for now, she'll need to do some sort of sit up.

She groans. She's never been particularly good in the ab department- not bad or anything, but she definitely doesn't have a six pack. (Much to her dismay, but she's too lazy to put in the effort to get one.) Sit ups aren't too hard for her, but doing them vertically might be more challenging.

With an odd sort of grunt, she pulls herself up on her first (sixth) try and latches her hands onto the rope, determined not to let herself fall back into the same hanging position. All she needs now is to light it on fire- without killing anyone, without letting it get out of control.

Then she makes the mistake of looking down. It doesn't look like a deadly fall, but it most likely will not feel good.

"Any second now," the blue coach grumbles.

Marella sighs. The fall isn't going to get any shorter from waiting. She wills her hands to start getting hot, then smoke starts coming off, and the tiniest bit of- hopefully controlled- fire makes its way onto the rope. It burns for a while without doing anything, but Marella doesn't want to risk adding more. The murmurs from below have started up again, and the coaches look concerned. Finally, the rope snaps and Marella falls, screaming the whole way down until something hard hits her. Or she hits something hard.

"Ow..." she groans, standing. It definitely doesn't feel good, but she'll live. Nothing's broken, and a small bruise is the worst she'll get.

A burst of water sails over her head and lands on the burning rope. Marella doesn't see the need for the water- it was barely a flicker of flame, and it was already dying out.

"Linh!" a voice hisses, evidently sharing her opinion. "The fire was perfectly safe, it was about to go out-"

"I didn't want to take that risk," whispers the same voice that ordered the others to let Marella concentrate.

She looks around. There's a stage only a few feet from where she landed, and Coach Rohana gestures for her to come. Tentatively, she steps up to it.

"The three hemispheres are right, left, and ambi," the red coach explains. "Right is for quick and generally impulsive people, and left is for our more rational waywards. Ambi is for those who are a mixture of both."

Coach Rohana dips her hands in a bowl of purple paint. "Using your pyrokinesis-" whispers break out at the word until the blue coach yells at everyone. "-to set the rope aflame was a risky move, but your ability to keep it under control and your logical decision to not add more fire was rational. Therefore, you belong in Ambi." Her painted hands mark each of Marella's sleeves with a purple handprint.

"Go to your tents now," the blue coach orders. One tent is red, one blue, and one purple. Marella guesses they correspond to the coaches and the color handprint. She's evidently part of the purple group, so she makes her way to the purple tent.

Mats cover the floor. As Marella predicted, nothing is in very good condition. The fabric is frayed and stained. Slowly, she sinks down onto one in the back. Although she's not particularly shy- in fact, she's just the opposite- she remembers Coach Rohana's warning about no social interactions, and isn't eager to break the rules on her very first day. Nearest to her are two other waywards, one with a black handprint pin she assumes is a Shade and one with a watery pin that's obviously for Hydrokinetics. The Shade and the Hydrokinetic aren't following the rules very well. They aren't technically touching, but they're very clearly sitting together.

The Shade has black and silver bangs protruding from their hood, covering their eyes, and the mask covers the rest of their face, so Marella can't tell anything about their appearance. The Hydrokinetic has long black hair, the ends dyed the same shade of silver. They're smaller than the Shade, and curvier. Probably feminine, though Marella doesn't want to assume anything.

"The first thing we're going to work on is Telekinesis," Coach Rohana announces in a monotone, standing at the front of the room. "Three rounds of splotching, and then we'll move on."

 _Not splotching!_ Marella thinks, remembering what happened at her last splotching match. Then again, if no talking is allowed, there can be no trash talking, and hopefully she won't lose control. If she does, well, there _is_ a Hydrokinetic sitting right near her.

"Find a partner, no talking," Coach Rohana continues, snapping her fingers to make the splotchers appear. Unsurprisingly, the Shade and Hydrokinetic partner up. Marella ends up opposing a Vanisher who has to be at least a foot taller than her, and is probably twice her weight, not that size matters in a splotching match.

"Three, two, one, splotch!"

She ends up covered in paint, and merely shrugs it off. The Vanisher's been training her longer than she has, and if Exillium works on Telekinisis regularly, then they've had more practice than she has. Plus, the Vanisher's got to be older than Marella.

She steals a glance at the Hydrokinetic and Shade. The Shade is the one covered in paint.

Coach Rohana blows a whistle. "All right, find a new partner!" she yells, conjuring a new set of splotchers.

The Shade points to the Vanisher and the Vanisher shrugs. The Hydrokinetic looks at Marella and tilts their head to the side. Hopefully, they're asking if Marella wants to partner up. Marella nods.

"Three, two, one, splotch!"

Somehow, Marella ends up winning that round. A mask conceals the Hydrokinetic's facial expression, but Marella gets the sense that they're smiling.

"Switch partners again!" Coach Rohana yells, and Marella ends up facing off against the Shade. Coach Rohana has barely yelled "Three, two, one, splotch!" when paint splatters Marella. Conjuring frayed towels and distributing them to the waywards, the coach announces "Okay, that's all!"

Marella, and most of the other Waywards who'd lost a match, wipe theirselves off before the towels disappear.

"Lunch break, and then we'll be working on levitating."

Levitating. Marella's never been good at levitating. She's good at eating, though.

Another tent marks the eating area, where baskets are filled with fruit. Marella's stomach growls, and she hopes seconds are an option. But every Wayward she sees takes only one, so reluctantly, she does the same.

_Follow the rules._

The fruit she takes is dark blue and perfectly spherical. She doesn't recognize it, but it's astonishingly sweet, and juicy too. As she wolfs it down, not bothering to savor, her gaze drifts to the Hydrokinetic and Shade. They're sharing a spiked purple fruit between them. Maybe they're dating? Marella shakes the thought away. Gossip was fun at Foxfire, but since talking isn't allowed here, why bother?

Although Marella thinks she's eaten her food fairly quickly, she's barely finished when the blue coach calls everyone back to their lessons.

"Time for levitating!" she announces. Marella groans internally, waiting for further instruction to be given. It never comes, and other Waywards simply start rising into the air and moving around almost like they're walking.

Marella can't float up more than about a foot, and can only stay stationary.

"You!" Coach Rohana calls, pointing right at her. "That barely even counts as levitating!"

 _I can't do better than this,_ Marella wants to say, but remembers the no talking rule just in time.

A low voice whispers in her head, "My sister wants me to tell you that you need to focus on the fact is made up of particles just like solid things are, just more spaced out, and concentrate on that so it's easier to push off of them."

Marella has no idea where the voice came from, and its words didn't make a whole lot of sense, but she tries anyway, and it actually sort of works to get her higher and higher in the air. When she tries moving forward, though, it doesn't work. Marella sighs. It's progress, at least? She hopes? Wondering whether or not her mini-success counted as success distracts her from focusing on her levitation, and she tumbles down, slamming into the ground before she can regain control.

"Ow," she groans, for the second time that day.

A hand grasps hers, connected to a face- and the rest of a body, otherwise would be a bit concerning. The outstretched arm belongs to the Hydrokinetic, and their hood is thrown back. Whether it's because they took it off or the wind blew it, Marella doesn't know, but now she can see their face. Only the top half is visible, but the Hydrokinetic looks decidedly feminine. She has a creamy complexion, cheeks flushed pink, and jet black hair extending down to her waist. Long, dark lashes frame her stunning silvery blue eyes. The Hydrokinetic is pretty, she decides. Her voice is pretty too, soft and sweet. "Are you okay?"

Marella forgets every word in the Enlightened Language.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, yes, Marella. What you're experiencing is called "gay panic," especially prominent in disaster lesbians. By which I mean all lesbians.
> 
> Anyway... Marella's fallen from great heights a few times, but nothing too dramatic! Besides, the small bruises will heal, and then Marella will be able to say she quite literally fell for Linh. All in all, I think this level of torment wasn't too bad!
> 
> Go read my gay headcanons and possibly comment? I love comments.


	6. Chapter 6

"Are you okay?" the girl repeats, brow furrowing with concern. She sweeps a strand of jet black hair, dyed silver at the ends, out of her face with her free hand.

Marella swallows. _Words, Marella. They're not that hard._ "Um. Yes. Okay."

She wants to sink into a hole, face turning red at the thought of how idiotic she must seem to the Hydrokinetic, but the girl smiles. She pulls, helping Marella to her feet. Nervously, Marella stuffs her hands into her pockets, eyes trained on the ground even though she keeps sneaking peaks at the girl. Was breathing always this difficult? Was she always this inept at forming a coherent thought?

"I'm Linh," the girl says, her full lips still pulled into a smile.

"Linh," Marella repeats softly. It's a beautiful name. Her face heats up again after she realizes what non-disaster human beings typically do after meeting someone. "Um. Marella."

They fall silent as Marella stares at Linh's eyes. Considering everyone in their species has blue irises, there's surprising variety, from Dex's periwinkle to Vacker teal to her own sky blue to this girl's silvery color. They seem to be sparkling, almost. The pupils are dilated and glint with reflected light. Linh's eyes wipe Marella's mind blank.

Linh turns away, breaking the spell she'd cast on Marella. "It's nice meeting you, Marella."

"Um. You too. Um," she stammers.

"You two!" Coach Rohana barks. "Hoods on! Masks on! No talking!"

The "holy mallowmelt that girl is beautiful" panic quickly becomes overshadowed by "well, crap, I just broke three of the rules I was specifically told not to break" panic. Fumbling, Marella yanks her hood back over her face. Linh does the same, albeit more slowly, and turns away to go back to the Shade. Marella does her best to continue with the lesson, but the thought of the Hydrokinetic still lingers on her mind- not helped by Linh waving discreetly every so often.

Finally, the sun disappears below the horizon and Exiilium dims. A gong sounds, and most students stop their levitating or their falling and start walking towards the tent where lunch had been served. Marella follows, disappearing into a giant hoard of waywards. As the smallest, Marella has to focus to not get trampled. Eventually, the person in front of her stops walking. Unfortunately, she doesn't notice and crashes into their back.

The figure ahead of her whirls around, glaring. The pin on their cloak indicates that they're a Shade. Marella shrinks. "Sorry?" she squeaks.

The Shade rolls their eyes and turns back around without saying anything. Next to them, a familiar voice whispers "Tam! Be nicer to her, it's her first day here." Linh's voice.

Before the Shade- Tam- can respond, the blue coach claps their hands and a bead appears over everyone's head. It's safe to say that Marella has no idea what's going on.

"To our new Wayward, who do not understand our traditions," the blue coach says, "We offer beads only to those we deem deserving. But it's always your choice to refuse or accept."

"Accepting comes with sacrifice," Coach Rohana adds. "The cost of continuing your fight for redemption. Refusing has no consequence, but it is also irreversible."

"We won't tell you how to decide," the purple coach finishes. "You choose your path."

Marella still has no idea what the beads are supposed to do, but everyone around her grabs one, so she does the same. It shocks her- not in the surprising sense, in the electricity sense. Once she's holding it, she's still unsure as to what's going on.

Linh turns her head around. "Tie in onto your cord," she whispers, holding up her own. Marella's eyes widen upon seeing the number of beads it has, but mutters a probably inaudible "thank you" and does so.

"You are dismissed!" the red coach calls.

Around her, people start leaping away. Marella waits until the hoard of people is less tightly packed before doing so. Ahead of her, Tam and Linh seem to have the same idea. When the crowd clears, Linh gives a little wave and quietly says "Well... see you tomorrow, I guess."

"Linh!" Tam hisses before they glitter away. Marella stares at the spot where Linh vanished for a second before leaping back to her cave.

It takes approximately ninety seconds for Marella to get bored. At least she can ditch the stupid mask and cloak, but she wishes she could change out of her other clothes too. Sadly, the only other outfit she has is the one from yesterday, that she'd rather not rewear.

Oh, and she doesn't have anything to eat in this stupid cave.

No food. No entertainment. _No flannel._ The decision is obvious- she needs to go back to her house.

Though she does spend five minutes pacing around, bouncing between making plans and talking herself out of it. Eventually, she comes up with something coherent, shuts down that voice of negativity, and finds her home crystal.

 _The rules are that I can't return to the Lost Cities,_ she thinks, hesitating just as she holds her crystal to the light.

 _Well, I need my flannel!_ another side of her brain decides. And besides, she's already broken the rules today, by talking to Linh. That didn't turn out horribly at all- in fact, Marella's rather glad they had the exchange. Good things come from breaking the rules. She leaps away and reappears in front of her old house.

It hasn't even been two days since she's been home, but a strong sense of homesickness pangs as she looks at the familiar stone path leading up to the arched doorways. She's back here for a few minutes and then... will she ever return again?

Marella shakes the thought away as she darts towards the door, hiding behind a column and glancing around wildly. If only she was a Vanisher... then again, if she was a Vanisher, she wouldn't be sneaking around in the first place. Ah, irony. But sneaking around has never been her strong suit. Nor has subtlety. The door gives a loud _CREEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAK_ as she swings it open, and the wooden floors groan under her footsteps, making the attempt to tiptoe completely worthless.

Her parents must not be home, because there is no way she would get this far without being caught otherwise. Provided her parents hadn't gone deaf in the last two days. That's a good thing, Marella decides- at least they'll have deniability if she gets caught in her newfound life of crime. Plus, she has no idea what she'd say with the knowledge she was actually saying goodbye.

The spiraling staircase she's walking on comes to an end, and Marella brushes her hand against the blue walls covered with photographs until she reaches her bedroom. Everything about it is exactly the same as she left it. The posters of Dwarven bands or sarcastic quotes decorating the yellow-orange walls, and the unmade bed, and the bookshelf lined with both books and small gadgets Dex made her, and the desk with Foxfire assignments scattered messily on its surface.

Marella realizes how long she's been staring and takes a deep breath. She isn't here to get nostalgic for a place she'd been separated from for a day and a half. She's here to get whatever's necessary to her survival in the Cave of Banishment, as she's named it. Marella grabs a back from a stash of clutter she has beside her desk and starts stuffing things into it. Her favorite or unread books, Dex gadgets with games on them, clothes (including the glorious, glorious flannel), and whatever won't go bad from her closet food supply. With a sigh, she gives the room one last look and slowly walks to the door.

Just before she leaves her bedroom, something catches her eye amidst the mess of Foxfire papers- her imparter! A way to communicate with the outside world! Stifling a small, happy scream, she grabs it and nearly skips out of her room. The elation lasts until she reaches the stairs.

Because she may never get the chance again, though, Marella sits atop the railing and slides down the spiral staircase. Then, deciding that one can never have too much food, she begins rifling through her kitchen to find anything she can use.

A voice stops her in her path.

"Marella Redek?"

Marella screams and grabs the first thing within reach- a banana. Despite it being very much not a weapon, she brandishes like it is, yelling "I'M ARMED, PEASANT! THOSE WHO OPPOSE ME NEVER ESCAPE UNSCATHED!"

Apparently, she gets very overconfident when panicked.

She only grips her "weapon" tighter when a laugh comes from behind the doorway. The insolence! But when the figure steps into the kitchen, Marella burns the banana in fright. _It's a councillor._

_Well then. I'm doomed._

"Relax," says Councillor Oralie, holding out her hands like she's trying to calm a wild animal. "I'm not going to turn you in."

Now unarmed (though she was never particularly threatening in the first place), Marella is especially nervous, and doesn't believe Oralie in the slightest. "How did you even get into my house?"

"You left the door unlocked," Oralie says. Marella curses under her breath.

...maybe not under her breath.

"Why are you in my house?" Marella demands once she's done with the profanities. Still, she silently berates herself for forgetting something so simple yet important.

"A lot of waywards, especially the younger ones, try to return to their old house. You're nowhere near the first. Our technopaths install security systems for the first month of banishment, so we can catch any waywards that come back."

"Oh." Icy dread claws at Marella- she should not have broken the rules. This was a horrendous idea. Even getting flannel wasn't worth this! Would she be officially sent to Exile now?

Oralie clears her throat. "Listen, since you're only twelve years old and you never meant to harm anyone, I'm going to let you go this time, and I won't tell anyone else on the council."

Marella's jaw drops- can a councillor really be that not totally awful? Will she not go to Exile and instead still be banished to... Exillium? Okay, so it isn't that much of an improvement. Still, she isn't facing any consequences for her life of crime- that's far better than she expected! "Thank you," Marella manages.

Oralie says nothing, but smiles, watching as Marella digs in her pockets for the leaping crystal to the Cave of Banishment. As she leaps away, she hears Oralie telling her "You're welcome, but I strongly advice you against breaking the rules again."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> T H E B A N A N A W E A P O N SKDJFADSKFJDSAKFJ  
> Just know, no one will ever let Marella forget that. Including Marella.  
> Also, I dropped like five title references this chapter lmao.  
> Comments! Comments are great. And KOTQC still has no comments, which is tragic. So you should fix that!


	7. Chapter 7

Marella has never really struggled with insomnia before now.

Of course, she wasn't one of those people who would fall asleep the moment their head hit the pillow, but she never lay awake for hours and hours and hours. It'd always been a middle ground.

Now, though, she leans more towards the second end of the spectrum.

The adrenaline rush of breaking into her old house lasts at least an hour after the event itself ends, and by then, it's time to go to bed. Marella doesn't have a watch, but the sun has disappeared well below the horizon, and consider how early she's forced to wake up for Exillium, it seems like the right time to go to bed.

And then she tries going to bed, and it really doesn't work.

She doesn't know how long she's been lying in her makeshift bed, annoying conscious, but it feels like an eternity. Something always seems to be on her mind, and every time her mind nearly crosses the line between awake and asleep, her eyes shoot open with the thought of this thing, and the cycle begins all over again.

Sometimes she wonders what would happen if another councillor caught her breaking in to her old house. Sometimes she wonders if Oralie lied, planned to tell the other councillors to get her in trouble. Sometimes she wonders whether the Exillium coaches want to punish her for talking to the Hydrokinetic. Linh.

Sometimes, the memory of Linh's long dyed hair and soft smiles and sparkling silvery blue eyes is enough to keep Marella tossing and turning.

Finally, finally, her brain shuts off from fatigue and she falls asleep.

When she is forced awake for Exillium, the sun has barely risen. The sky is light enough to see, but just barely. How do they expect elves to properly function at this hour? Marella sighs. Then, telling herself she can't really do anything about this, changes into her uniform and leaps to Exillium.

Unfortunately, the uniform is still far too dull, grey, uncomfortable, and masked. Fortunately, she doesn't have to go through the Dividing this time. If she did, she wouldn't be caught off guard... but that rather defeats the purpose, and anyway, not doing it at all is better.

No one else has to go through the Dividing either, so the coaches order the waywards immediately divide into their hemispheres and jump right into lessons. Being one of the later ones to arrive, Marella doesn't have to deal with being nearly trampled by other, bigger waywards. On the down side, she's among the few earning the dirtiest looks from coaches.

Marella stares at her feet and chooses to focus on the positive.

The positives become much more noticeable when the waywards take their seats on the mats. Again, everyone sits rather spaced apart, and Marella stays in the back. A familiar pair of waywards draw nearer, and Marella's breath hitches when she notices their ability pins.

Linh! The Hydrokinetic!

Oh, and her Shade friend Tam.

Her heart beats even more rapidly when Linh sits next to her, just an inch or two away from touching. The Shade sits on her other side.

"Hi," Linh whispers. Marella stays still, too nervous to speak or move or even breathe.

"Don't talk to her!" Tam hisses.

"Why not?"

"It's the rule!"

"Since when have you ever cared about rules?"

"Touche."

"Silence!" Coach Rohana barks, even though no one except Marella, Linh, and Tam were talking, and there's no way anyone could have heard them. "Today we are going to be working on appetite suppression!"

As a collective whole, the group groans, including the two elves next to Marella. Linh nudges her and whispers "No lunch, basically." Marella then groans with the group.

The entire day turns out to be sitting there, doing nothing, and having her stomach growl loudly enough she's sure everyone back at Foxfire can hear it. The only redeeming quality is the occasional times when Marella or Linh fidgets and brushes their hand against the others'. Every touch seems to burn, leaving a lingering sensation of electricity against Marella's knuckles. It's comforting to know she's not alone.

When the sun begins to paint the sky gold and pink, Marella slumps in relief that the day is finally over, and then the realization that it's not over yet, she has to keep suffering, punches her in the gut. It's too hot for any elvin being to be without air conditioning, even this far after noon, and Marella's face stings with sunburn. The sun is still glaring at her face from where it's slightly above the horizon. Her throat screams for water. Sweat trickles down her back under the heavy Exillium uniform.

Marella is miserable.

Without her making a conscious decision, her hand starts inching towards the Hydrokinetic. Her breath catches as it touches Linh's. She doesn't dare move, waiting for Linh to pull her hand away or shove Marella's, but she slips it into her own and lets their fingers interlace.

Linh's hands are calloused and cold. Marella's are always hot, and probably sweaty, but Linh doesn't seem to mind, so Marella tries to ignore it. Tentatively, she squeezes. Every move is nerve wracking, convinces Marella that it'll move outside the other girl's comfort zone, but Linh squeezes back and Marella relaxes slightly. Holding Linh's hand is nice. A steady grip of support as Marella's mind tries to reach far, far away from this hot desert neutral territory of doom, glimmering with light as her brain tries to spiral into despair. Every so often, one of them- usually Linh- will squeeze more tightly or brush their thumb over the other's knuckles. Those small motions are the only thing distinguishing one eternal second from the next.

Finally- _finally-_ the sky is dark and stars start to shine faintly. Marella gives an audible sort of excited yelp as the beads appear over each wayward. As heads turn to stare at her, she hunches her shoulders, wishing to disappear, but then Linh lets out a quiet laugh, sounding happy rather than mocking, and Marella smiles beneath her mask. They let go of each other's hands. The memory lingers, a phantom pressure, as everyone grabs their beads. With fumbling fingers, Marella ties it onto her cord, then reaches in her pocket for her leaping crystal.

She holds it up, letting the barest glint of remaining light gleam off of the crystal, but pauses before leaping. Linh's silvery blue eyes meet her own and they stare for a few seconds before Marella turns away, face hot with what she's pretty sure is a blush and not a sunburn.

"It was nice... seeing you?" she says, voice barely audible. Hopefully loud enough for Linh to hear, but definitely not that anyone else- coaches especially- can.

Linh does hear, evidently. Her slender fingers, so recently intertwined with Marella's, reach up and push a strand of hair from where it's hanging to behind her mask. "You too."

Marella nods once and glimmers away, hearing the Shade hiss "Linh!" and Linh reply "What?"

She reappears just outside her cave. Rain pours down in buckets from the sky in whatever neutral territory this is. Dark grey clouds cover the sky, making it impossible to tell whether it's daytime or night. Marella hurries into the shelter of the cave and changes out of her suddenly soaked uniform into jeans and- _thank mallowmelt!-_ flannel before gobbling up some of the snacks she brought. Bored, she begins searching through her pile of stolen from her old house stuff. The imparter catches her eye. Eagerly, she snatches it and sits down on her makeshift bed.

"Show me Dex," Marella mutters, voice trembling with excitement.

A familiar voice yells "BEX, SOMEONE IS CALLING ME, LEAVE ME ALONE!" before a door slams and the image comes into view. Dex, his strawberry blond hair disheveled and his face red, grins widely enough to show his dimples, exclaiming "Marella!?"

"Dex," Marella laughs. Actually, she's not sure if she's laughing or crying. She's happy, yes, to see her best friend. Unbelievably happy. But it's also a reminder that her old life has been left behind. Seeing him is just... overwhelming.

"How the mallowmelt did you hail me?"

"Okay, so, long story short but knowing myself, not really- I realized I had nothing to do and nothing to wear and nothing to eat, so I kind of broke into my old house and got a ton of stuff. Oh, and I sort of maybe got caught by Councillor Oralie-"

"- _What?_ -"

"But she agreed to let me go. Yay!"

"You broke into your house?"

"Well, the door was unlocked and no one was home. And then I got caught. So not really."

"Still, pretty cool."

"I threatened a councillor with a banana, Dex."

Dex throws his head back with laughter. "You _what_?"

"Don't make me repeat it!" Marella squawks, but she laughs too.

Eventually, the two settle down, and Dex clears his throat before asking "So, anyway, how are you? Tell me about these insane last few days."

Marella flops onto her bed, holding the imparter to keep her face in view. "UGGGGHHHHHHHH summarizes it pretty well, I'd say."

"Um... could you provide a few more details?"

"No."

Dex raises an eyebrow. Marella sighs and starts talking, the words spilling out in a rush. "So, I got put on trial- you remember that- and sentenced to Exillium before I got leaped to this _random neutral territory in the middle of nowhere_ and got briefed on the stupid Exillium rules that I probably shouldn't break but you know, rules were made to be broken, so anyway then the Exillium person gives me this freaking ugly uniform that's too big and hides my face before leaving, I kind of wander around until I can find something that could conceivably be used as shelter, meaning a slimy cold gross cave, then I fall asleep and wake up far too early to go to Exillium, which is represented by an X even though the word clearly starts with an E so that's _dumb,_ and they put me through this weird dividing ceremony where they tie me up with a rope and I have to get free, obviously I burn the rope and they decide that means I belong in the group between impulsive and logical called ambi, I try and fail to levitate."

Marella takes a deep breath for the first time this run on before continuing. "So I fall to the ground in a heap and that's fun, but then this... girl comes and helps me up. Her face is showing, even though that breaks the rules, and she talks to me, even though that breaks the rules. Her name is Linh. She's a hydrokinetic and has these silvery blue eyes- anyway, we then get yelled at for, you know, breaking all those rules. The lesson finishes up and I go back to my cave before realizing I need to start my life of crime and break into my old house. So that happens, and I threaten Councillor Oralie with a banana before being told I can go back to my cave and I fall asleep. Then I go back to Exillium and _starve_ because we're working on appetite suppression, but Linh sits next to me and we eventually hold hands for support. I leap here and hail you. The end."

"You've had an... eventful few days. The most eventful thing that happened to me was the triplets- speaking of which, I need to disappear to yell at them for a second."

Marella's view on the imparter shifts to Dex's green bedsheets as she hears muffled yelling in the background. A few minutes pass before Dex returns. "Sorry about that. Ugh, siblings. Anyway, those monsters pulled a few pranks. Oh, and Queen Biana Redek-"

" _Biana Redek_?"

"Don't you like her?"

"First of all, not anymore. Second of all, she doesn't like me. Third of all-"

Dex smirks. "I should be saying Linh Redek?"

"FINISH WITH THE STORY!" Marella yells, wishing she could reach through the imparter and strangle him. "Why did I hail you again?"

"Because I'm your best friend and you love me platonically. Anyway, Queen Biana decides to start lecturing everyone on why you shouldn't bully people or they'll set you on fire, which is kind of... _whatever_ when she's talking to Stina, but it's awesome when she punches a Level Six twice her size for picking on some talentless kids."

"That's _amazing._ "

"Isn't it? Oh, and Wonderboy's eyes still haven't changed back."

"You are my hero for giving him that elixir."

"Heck yeah I am. Best of all, there are some rumors that Keefe Sencen is going to incite an even better Great Gulon Incident! I'm not sure if those rumors are to be believed, but... _awesome._ "

Marella's jaw drops as she laughs. Thunder booms outside, but she ignores it. Talking to Dex makes her feel like she's not banished, not in a cave who knows where, just a normal girl talking to her best friend. Her worries are forgotten as she falls into the ease of their banter. It's only been a few days, and she both misses their conversation like she's been gone forever and slips back into it like she's never been gone. "You have to tell me everything about it."

"I've been working on a gadget that records things- if I perfect it by the time Greater Gulon Incident happens, I'll videotape it for you."

"That'd be awesome, yeah."

They continue talking, not about anything important or really _anything,_ but just talking, until Dex is called for dinner.

"Hopefully I'll talk to you soon?" Dex says.

Marella smiles. "Yeah."

The thunderstorm outside is over, leaving the cave with only the soft and calm sound of rain pattering gently, and Marella's sure it's getting late. She falls asleep with much more ease than last night, the memories of her conversation with Dex and of holding Linh's hand lingering on her mind.

That peaceful state of being lasts until she wakes up, feeling like she's been trampled by a verminion and come off worse in a fight with an ogre.

Pain. Pain. And oh, did she forget to mention pain?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, the Marella torture hath returneth. Hey, I lasted a surprisingly long time without it!
> 
> Anyway, does Marella have coronavirus? Don't be ridiculous, this takes place well before the pandemic, chronologically. She has fintonavirus.
> 
> Assistant: You know most of the readers here don't get that.
> 
> Me: I don't care. Everyone should know about FIVID-19. The risk is high, you know. wEAR A MASK-
> 
> Also comment. I adore comments. And check out KOTQC! :)


	8. vii

Everything hurts. Marella's head feels like it's about to explode from the pain and every muscle in her body aches and she's shivering but also somehow really hot? And her throat burns, dryer than the Sahara desert. She moans and rolls over, pressing a pillow over her head and cocooning herself in blankets like that will block out the pain.

All in all, Marella does not feel at her best today.

Her mind is so preoccupied with the fact that she's sick, probably dying, and possibly already dead that she completely forgets she isn't in the Lost Cities. "Dad," she calls into nothingness. "I'm sick. I can't go to Foxfire today."

Then she falls back asleep without hearing a response, sure that Elwin will come soon with elixirs to take the feeling of mastodon trampling away.

He doesn't.

Marella's imparter rings again- Dex programmed it a while ago to automatically go to snooze, knowing Marella's rather bad habit of always hitting that button a million times anyway. The insufferable beeping noise feels like it's drilling into Marella's skull, and she wants to destroy it, but doesn't have the energy to do so.

"Shut up, imparter! I don't have to wake up for Foxfire today!" she says. What, talking to inanimate objects is totally normal!

...Okay, it's normal for _her,_ at least.

When the imparter doesn't, in fact, shut up, Marella rolls onto her side and, with her eyes still glued shut, flails her arm around in search of that stupid device. Her efforts are fruitless, so she finally has to open her eyes and look for it to hit the off button.

_Why am I in a cave?_ she thinks.

Then, _Oh yeah._

Marella's dad is not going to come and take her temperature before telling her she can stay at home in her pajamas all day, sleeping and generally being lazy. Elwin isn't going to bring elixirs that will heal her by tomorrow. And she doesn't have to go to Foxfire today, because she's been banished from Foxfire.

She does, though, have to go to Exillium. Because if she doesn't, she won't get the leaping crystal for the next day, and won't be able to go tomorrow. And then, she won't be able to get the leaping crystal for the day after that, and she'll never get to go to Exillium again.

Not that she loves Exillium. But she has to keep going for three reasons.

1) The Exillium coaches will probably punish her greatly.

2) Even if they don't, Exillium is her only chance of earning her way back to the Lost Cities.

3) Sitting around in this cave with nothing to do for the rest of her life does not sound like the best course of action.

Four reasons.

...if she never returns to Exillium, she'll never see Linh again.

With a groan, Marella swings her legs over and tries her best to stand up, leaning heavily on the wall for support. Her legs shake, barely able to support her weight. She stumbles over to the corner where she keeps her clothes and changes into the Exillium uniform. It's so heavy, and Marella is so weak... she just wants to go to sleep... for the next... five... centuries...

But she can't, so she grabs her leaping crystal and, ignoring the slight nausea it brings, vanishes. Marella reappears...

Somewhere.

She can't describe where she is, because she can't _see_ it.

Her hand reaches out, and she hopes she'll at least touch _something,_ some way to get just an idea of where the mallowmelt she is. Whatever her hand makes contact with is cold, and slimy. Sticking her tongue out, she draws it backwards and shakes it vigorously, trying to get whatever gross substance that was off of her.

"We're practicing night vision!" announces a voice. Considering Marella can't see, she can't quite tell who it is, but probably a coach. "The only way out of this cave is to navigate with sight. Good luck!"

Seeing? Yeah, that's not happening. The world doesn't change at all whether Marella's eyes are open or closed, that's how dark it is. And since there's no difference, Marella can just close her eyes. Her head still throbs, and she can't tell if she's shivering from the cold of the cave or from fever chills. There's virtually no noise in the cave as waywards silently navigate out, so the sound of Marella breathing through a stuffy nose and occasionally hacking cough is probably even more noticeable. And Marella's legs are so sore, so weak, and she's so dizzy, so tired...

_So tired..._

Marella sways, so desperate to stop supporting her own weight that she no longer cares about the filth on the wall. The slimy cave doesn't catch her, though- arms do.

"Are you okay?" whispers Linh. Marella instantly relaxes, letting more of her weight fall into the Hydrokinetic. She knows she shouldn't make this girl, who's definitely bigger than her, but not by a whole lot, hold her up, but she isn't sure she can stand on her own, and anyway, Linh catching her makes her feel... almost safe.

"Not really," Marella tries to say. Her throat is so hoarse that her voice barely comes out as more of a squeak. She repeats the phrase. Her voice is audible this time, albeit raspy enough to make herself cringe.

Linh, and another hand that probably belongs to her friend Tam, help tilt her back up to a mostly upright position. Something cold touches her forehead, nearly freezing, and in the shape of a hand long, slender fingers that were intertwined with hers just yesterday. "You're burning up," Linh decides.

"Pyrokinetic," says Marella.

"Yeah, and your body temperature was hot before, but now you're even hotter."

_DID SHE JUST CALL ME HOT!?_ Marella's mind screams. _SHE JUST CALLED ME HOT!_

The (very, very small) logical part of her brain replies with, _She obviously meant in a temperature sense rather than an attractiveness sense-_ but it's almost completely overshadowed by _SHE JUST CALLED ME HOT!_ and an abundance of screaming.

"You seem really sick," Linh continues, oblivious to Marella's gay panic. Her hand touches Marella's, not helping the screaming, and something cold and sharp and very leaping crystal like presses into her palm. "That crystal leads to the house Tam and I live in. We both have a leaping crystal, so we should be able to get back, and we'll bring you the crystal for tomorrow's location."

"Linh, what the heck?" Tam snaps in a whisper-scream, before Marella can ineloquently and ramblingly attempt to express her gratitude. "We can't just-"

"She needs our help, Tam," Linh says.

The two fall silent for a long time, enough to make Marella wonder if they're actually still there.

"Fine," says Tam.

"Yes!" Linh clears her throat softly. "Um. There are some gnomes- tell them the password is 'girl of many floods' so they know Tam and I gave you permission to go there. And... yeah. They should be able to give you medicine."

Marella turns to face her. Hopefully. She can't actually see anything. "Thank you so much. Really."

"Of course," Linh says. Marella smiles and holds her crystal up to the light- then realizes there actually isn't any light.

"Oh. Right," says Tam, evidently reaching the same conclusion. Some of the shadows part just a crack, allowing the tiniest glimmer of light to shine through. Marella lets her crystal catch in and disappears.

When Marella appears somewhere, somewhere she can actually _see_ , with actual _light,_ her eyes take a while to adjust. Finally, though, her vision returns to what a normal elf's is, and she looks around. She's in a forest, with trees fairly spaced out, and all of them look like they'd be wonderful to climb if she didn't feel half dead. A wide river, deep enough for Marella to not see the bottom, runs along a few feet to her left and leads to a house. The house is small, cottage like. It looks rather cozy, and especially appealing for a girl who feels she's about to collapse.

_This is so much nicer than my cave_ , she thinks, stumbling towards the door. A gnome stops her just before she enters. "Um... girl of many floods?" says Marella.

The gnome nods and steps aside. "You do not look well."

"Yeah, that's a shocker," she mutters under her breath, opening the door. Her legs nearly collapse beneath her as she walks through the entrance. "Um. I don't feel well either."

"That is unfortunate. I will call for some of my more medically talented friends. You may just lie down, perhaps on the couch," the gnome says, gesturing to Marella's right. She goes where they're pointing and does indeed see a couch. Its fabric is sandpapery and torn in some places, but Marella is so glad to lie down that she doesn't care.

"What's your name?" she asks sleepy. Her eyelids are already starting to slide shut.

"Bidi," answers the gnome. "And yours?"

"Marella," she mumbles, probably inaudibly, but she's asleep before she can repeat herself.

She wakes up to something cold being placed on her forehead- a much better way than by listening to the infernal beeping of that stupid alarm. "Mmm?" she grunts, because she's too tired to speak in actual words. Her eyes slowly blink open. She's not in her cave, but she's not in her bedroom either. There's a window displaying a forest in front of her and an ugly couch to her left, identical to the one she's lying on. A dark green carpet with frayed edges sits between the two.

Where is she?

And why is there a gnome standing together?

The pieces start to click into her mind. She got sick and left Exillium. The gnomes are supposedly here to give her medicine. And she's at Linh's house.

_She's at Linh's house._

"Drink this," the gnome tells Marella, handing her a cup filled with some sort of lavenderish liquid.

Marella takes the cup between her hands and presses it to her lips. "Ooh! Hot!" she exclaims. Beyond its scalding temperature, the drink is sweet, probably honeyed. She waits a few minutes for it to cool off before drinking the rest. Instantly, her throat feels fine, her headache starts to fade, and some semblance of energy returns to her body.

"Are you new to the Neutral Territories?" the gnome asks. Marella nods. "A disease called aegrotas usually goes around this time of year. Elves who have been living in the Neutral Territories for a long time develop an immunity, but I suppose you had the misfortune to come down with it. Don't worry, it's not deadly- the symptoms last no more than a weak untreated, and even less time with medicine. For now, I would advise lots of rest-" Marella can do that. Quite happily, in fact. "-And drink that elixir every hour or so."

"Thank you," Marella whispers.

The gnome smiles. "Of course. Any friend of Tam and Linh's is a friend of ours."

Is Marella friends with Tam and Linh? Well, not Tam- he doesn't seem to like her much, and only helped her reluctantly. But Linh... maybe. Marella resists the urge to squeal at the thought.

"Oh!" exclaims the gnome. "I can't believe I haven't introduced myself. I'm Willa."

"Marella."

"It's very nice to meet you. Now, it's getting dark out, so Tam and Linh should be here soon-"

Willa must be psychic, because as they say it, Marella hears a door open with a creak and Linh's voice call "We're home!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because of my aUtHoR cReAtIvItY, I used Google Translate to come up with the name for the disease (aegrotas is 'sickness' in Latin). In doing so, I found out that Exillium is literally Latin for banishment. And Exsillium is Latin for Exile. Well played, Shannon Messenger.  
> It's comforting to know that actual published authors name things in the same creative way I do.  
> Anyway, I got a tumblr! It's @gay-otlc. And as always, I love comments.


	9. viii

_Pretend to be asleep!_ Marella's mind screams. _I'm too much of a disaster to properly interact with Linh!_

But she isn't very good at following rules, even if they're self imposed, so as soon as Linh asks "Feeling any better?" in a whisper, Marella can't help but respond.

"Yeah, thanks."

Linh's face breaks up into a wide smile, and when Marella's face heats up, she doesn't _think_ it's the fever. "Is it okay if Tam and I stay, or do you want to rest?"

"What makes you think I want to stay?" calls Tam.

"He has no manners. I apologize for him," says Linh. "But okay, fine. Do you mind if I-"

"I mean, I guess I'll stay, since I have nothing better to do," Tam interrupts.

Rubbing her temples, Linh huffs "Brothers."

 _They're siblings? Well, explains why they look almost exactly the same. Probably twins. They look the same age. But most importantly, not girlfriend and boyfriend!_ Marella finds the restraint to keep from celebrating aloud, somehow.

"Do you have any siblings?" continues Linh.

"No." That is true- Marella is an only child. When she was younger, she asked her parents for a brother or sister constantly. The antics of Dex's siblings might have convinced her that maybe siblings would be a bit too chaotic- and they would, considering her mother's condition- but Dex seemed to love the triplets' presence despite how obnoxious they were, and that made Marella wish for a sibling all over again. Back when she attended Foxfire, she'd spend a lot of time at the Dizznees' house, and the noise, despite headache inducing on occasion, was always better than the eerie silence draped over Marella's house.

Tam's salty monotone interrupts Marella's thoughts with "You better not call her lucky, Linh."

Linh's silver blue eyes roll, and Marella finds herself fascinated by the motion. _Snap out of it, Redek._ "I wasn't about too," says Linh. "Anyway, Marella, are we bothering you?"

"No," Marella answers, struggling to a sitting position on the couch. Linh sits down next to her. Their hands are almost touching. _OUR HANDS ARE ALMOST TOUCHING!_

_We've literally held hands before. For like, hours. Chill, Marella._

Goosebumps break out on Marella's arms, and she shivers, reaching for a ragged grey blanket. "I didn't mean _fever_ chills," she mutters angrily. Linh's turns to look at her, head titled with inquisition. "Just talking to myself," she explains, face reddening. Well, Linh has probably declared her an official weirdo by this point.

An awkward silence settles over the room, heavy and suffocating. Marella hates it. Pressure inside her threatens to burst, and when her hand starts smoking, she decides that maybe engaging in conversation will dissipate her nerves better than sitting in this awful quiet would. "You guys have a really nice house," she blurts.

Tam, sitting on the couch opposite them, raises an eyebrow and tilts his head. The resemblance between him and Linh is especially prominent. If they weren't different genders, Marella would guess the two to be exactly identical. "This house is a complete mess. Most of our stuff is falling apart. How is this nice?"

He has a point. Compared to any house in the Lost Cities- even Marella's, which is relatively plain considering, say, Everglen- this house is nowhere near respectable. But after living in a cave, Marella's housing standards have lowered. "It's a lot nicer than where I currently live."

"Which is?"

"A cave. In the middle of a desert. In the middle of nowhere."

"Sounds like my dream house. How many lusters?" jokes Linh.

Marella laughs.

She isn't normally self conscious about her laugh, but she kind of hates it right now. It starts out with a snort, then a few quiet giggles, then a loudish sort of guffaw. Linh's laugh is much nicer- a big smile brightening the room as her shoulders shake with bright, musical mirth. Marella wants to record the sound and listen to it any time she feels down, because just listening to Linh laughing makes her feel lighter inside.

Tam doesn't laugh.

What a surprise.

"How did you guys manage to get an actual house?" Marella says.

Linh scoots a little closer to Marella. "The leaping crystal after we got banished led us to a part of the forest about half a mile away. Some gnomes found us and helped us."

"Nice of them."

"Yeah." After a short pause, Linh stands up. Marella slumps slightly in disappointment. They were so close to each other! That was awesome! Terrifying, yeah, but awesome. Good things can't last all that long, she supposes. "I'm gonna go change out of my Exillium uniform...?" says Linh, phrasing it like a question, and Marella wonders if she's not the only one here that's kind of nervous.

Why would Linh be nervous, though? Marella's nervous because Linh is a very pretty girl, but Linh probably isn't into girls, and therefore Marella's own decent beauty wouldn't send Linh into panic. Maybe she's just shy and nervous around all people she doesn't know well? She does seem to be on the quiet side, so that makes sense.

With a shock, she remembers that Linh said something and it's typically polite to respond when someone talks. "Oh. Um. Yeah. Those uniforms do kinda suck."

Linh gives a little wave and leaves the room. Faint footsteps are still audible from where Marella sits. Her gaze follows the spot where she could see Linh last. When she realizes she's been staring, her head snaps back to Tam. Who's been looking at her.

Not looking. More like glaring.

What did she do? Marella hasn't known Tam all that long! How could she have offended him? Perhaps her mere presence is exceptionally rude?

"I'm still trying to figure out why my sister wants to help you," she hears, in a low voice that sounds a lot like Tam's. "She's known you for only a few days with minimal actual interactions, and yet she seems to like you."

Tam's lips aren't moving. But he's talking. How is... what? And why is there a shadow over her but nothing else in the room?

"It's called shadow whispering. A shade thing."

"Oh," Marella says. It feels weird to talk out loud when Tam isn't. "Anyway, thanks for all the high praise. I think Linh wants to help me because she's super nice?"

"Linh always tries to help literally anyone who needs it," he agrees. "At last count, we've taken in no less than seven animals and kept two."

"Aww." She loves animals. "Can I see the pets?"

"No. My point is, Linh loves helping people. And she thinks everyone deserves that help. That's her problem. She's way too trusting."

 _That's better than not trusting anyone and being obnoxious, like_ some _people,_ Marella thinks, but has the sense not to say out loud. Does shadow whispering involve mind reading? She hopes not.

"Linh isn't willing to accept that most people are simply bad," continues Tam, eyes- silvery blue eyes that look exactly like Linh's- narrowing. "So she gives her trust people who shouldn't have it. And if someone breaks that trust, she'll be more upset than a normal person. So I'm warning you not to break her trust."

"I won't," Marella says, without even having to think about it. She may break rules, but she doesn't break trust.

Tam does not look like he believes her, even when she repeats it.

Even if she wanted to hurt Linh, the wrath of Tam doesn't seem to be worth it. He's a little scary, she has to admit. "You seem really protective of her," points out Marella, channeling the spirit of Captain Obvious.

Behind her, Linh's voice says "He really is. It's quite annoying. I don't need his protection. I'm the older twin."

"You're the older twin?"

At the same time, Tam grumbles "By _three minutes._ "

"And forty two seconds!" adds Linh, walking into the room and Marella's line of eyesight, completing her transformation into a Complete Disaster Lesbian ™.

She'd thought nothing could be more gorgeous than seeing Linh for the first time in the Exillium uniform. She'd thought very, very wrong. Linh wears a light pink dress reaching to just above her knees and a white jacket and her jet black silver tipped hair in a braid. Marella forgets how to talk, breathe, or function.

Eloquently, Marella says "Um. You look. Good."

Linh's cheeks color slightly as she gives a small smile and thanks Marella. Tam rolls his eyes and walks in the direction of the staircase. Leaving Marella alone with Linh.

 _Leaving Marella alone with Linh_!

"Um..." she says, continuing to be eloquent, as Linh sits down on the couch next to her.

"What did you do to get banished?" Linh asks in a rush. Before Marella even has time to open her mouth, she adds "Sorry! You don't have to tell me if you don't want. I don't mean to pry. Just curious, because you seem really nice and not at all like a juvenile delinquent-"

"No. Um. It's okay. I got banished because I'm a pyrokinetic and that's very illegal."

"That doesn't seem fair."

Marella shrugs. "It's the law. Anyway, you seem even nicer than me- how the mallowmelt did you get in trouble?"

"Well..." says Linh, biting her lip. "You're a pyrokinetic, so you must know how hard it is to control your ability, right?"

"Considering I set Tribunal Hall on fire, I would say yes," answers Marella, immediately wishing she hadn't shared that extra information when Linh's eyes widen. _I don't need her thinking I'm a danger, or a freak, or whatever. I don't want her to dislike me, and I really don't want Tam to murder me._

"Wow. Um. Anyway. I kind of flooded Atlantis?"

"That's... impressive. You win."

"I don't really think that's a good thing," says Linh. "But Tam refused to let me be banished without him coming along, so the council banished him too. Our parents were glad to be rid of us."

Marella has no idea what to say to that. She can't imagine having parents that want to get rid of her. Her home life has never been the most stable, but she's always known her parents care about her.

Linh continues, "We've always been bad for their reputation, considering I-" She pauses, face blanching as she swallows. "Considering Tam and I are twins."

It seemed like she was going to say something else before what she actually said. Marella wonders what it was, but doesn't pry.

"They're idiots."

Linh gives a small smile. "You know, they're very well respected-"

"Well respected idiots." Anyone who doesn't like Linh is an idiot, in Marella's opinion.

"I suppose I can't argue with that," says Linh, smile widening. "Um... would you like to change out of the terrible Exillium uniform? I have some extra clothes upstairs..."

Honestly, Marella had kind of forgotten she was wearing that. "I don't think I'd fit. I'm kind of tiny."

"A little, yeah."

"I have some clothes back at the cave..." Marella's voice trails off. "I guess I should go back? It's pretty dark out. Thanks so much for-"

"No, you can stay the night," Linh interrupts quickly. "Um, it'd be bad if you got way sicker overnight and didn't have a way to get help."

That sounds great to Marella. It's possible she has an ulterior motive- that is, wanting to stay longer with Linh. "Yeah. Um. Thank you."

"Of course," Linh answers. "I can come with you to get your stuff from the cave, if you want."

"Sounds good, yeah."

Linh nods, smiling. "Tam! I'm going to get Marella's stuff! I should be back in no more than twenty minutes, so don't panic until then!"

"Okay!" Tam calls back.

"Great, you have your leaping crystal?" Linh asks. Marella nods, drawing it from her pocket. She tries not to panic as Linh takes her hand and they glitter away. Even when they're done light leaping, she doesn't let go. It's terrifying, but hey, Marella's not complaining. She grabs a few changes of clothes- it's unclear how long she'll have to stay at Linh's, depends on how long the sickness lasts- her imparter, and some of the best snacks before leaping back to Tam and Linh's house well within the time limit.

Willa greets them at the door with Marella's sweet, lavenderish medicine and a tantalizing smell. "Starkflower stew," she explains. Marella's never heard of it before, but judging by its scent, it'll taste delicious. Tam is downstairs setting the table, dressed in a black hoodie and jeans.

Linh turns to Marella. "You can go dump your stuff in my room. It's the one on the left."

Blushing, Marella nods and walks up the stairs. Despite her weighing almost nothing, each step creaks. Linh's directions seem to be correct, and the door being labeled with her name helps too. Like everything else in this house, the door creaks as she opens it.

The floor is covered by a grey carpet. A little frayed, but mostly intact. Her bed in the corner is actually made, making Linh the first person Marella knows who actually does that. Despite them being in a forest in the middle of nowhere, Linh has managed to at least somewhat personalize her room, with a somewhat battered bookshelf in one corner and flowers on the windowsill, making it pretty despite the kind of torn curtains. A furry little tomple scurries around in a cage. Marella decides to put her stuff far away from it. She ducks into an adjacent bathroom and changes into a (gasp) flannel shirt and leggings before heading downstairs.

The dinner of starkflower stew is absolutely delicious. Marella eats her serving, and then seconds, and would have gotten thirds if she felt she could eat it without bursting. It's fairly late out when they finish eating, so the gnomes go to their various homes, and Marella follows Tam and Linh upstairs, blushing when Linh offers her the chance to sleep in her room.

Even after the third time Tam yells at them to "QUIET DOWN, ALREADY!", Linh and Marella continue talking. It feels so wonderful to be allowed to converse without fearing the wrath of Exillium coaches, without there being rules against it. And of course, Marella loves the chance to actually see Linh's face. She entertains Linh with stories about Dex and her at Foxfire, and of course the triplets, while Linh tells her about some of the revenge pranks Tam's pulled on their parents. Talking to Linh is easy, and decidedly enjoyable. Finally, though they're nowhere near out of things to discuss, exhaustion causes the two to finally let their eyes close as they drift off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fluffy Marellinh? Yes. Overprotective Tam? Yes.  
> Both? Y E S .  
> By the way, I have a Sophiana songfic up to Girls Like Girls, so go check that out! And I love comments, hint hint hint.


	10. iv

By the time Marella wakes up, Linh is no longer in her bed or even in the bedroom. Apparently Linh is one of those early rising weirdos, Marella decides, groaning and stretching. She would very much like to go back to sleep, but several things make that impossible, like the astonishingly loud birds outside and the blinding sunlight seeping through the window (at least she doesn't have to deal with that while in her cave) and the delicious smell wafting from downstairs. Plus, the pain in her throbbing head. That's a little distracting from relaxation.

Even though she can't fall in sleep, Marella lays in her bed for a little while longer. Hey, the waking up process is long! She needs time to not move at all and basically just be a lazy lump! Eventually, though, she realizes that if she stays in bed for too much longer, she'll be late for Exillium, and that is not something she cares to experience.

Linh, evidently, shares the same thought. She knocks lightly on the door- Marella knows it's her even before she opens the door, considering Tam's knocks sound like he's trying to break it down- and then enters the room. Her long black hair hangs down to her waist, straight and neat as ever- Marella doesn't even want to imagine how messed up her own is right now. She's wearing the bottom half of the Exillium, but not the chained vest, hood, or mask- she has a lavender tank top on instead. A warm smile brightens her face. Marella was half asleep thirty seconds ago, but seeing Linh makes her feel very, very awake.

"Hey," Linh says softly, tapping Marella's shoulder. "Wake up."

Marella tries her best to ignore the little sparks of electricity that shoot through her every time Linh's fingers make contact. "Um. Hi. Yes. Awake. I'm."

That is, if not the most stupid thing she's ever said, very close.

Thankfully, Linh doesn't make fun of her for that. She's too nice- one of the many wonderful things about this Hydrokinetic. "We have breakfast downstairs. It's this human thing called cinnamon rolls- they're super good."

"Human?" Wow, Marella is acting stupid. In her defense, she's tired, and Linh is looking very very pretty, and Marella is very very gay.

But from what Marella knows of humans, they're even worse than elves. Awful to each other, animals, and even their planet. The one they depend on for survival. In related news, humans aren't very smart either.

But hey, if they have good food...

"I'll be downstairs soon," mumbles Marella. "Just lemme get changed."

Linh nods and exits the room, leaving Marella to shake her head and cringe as she reflects on how idiotic she was that entire conversation. _Um. Hi. Yes. Awake. I'm._ Even if Linh is too nice to vocalize these thoughts, she must think Marella is an absolute _moron._ Groaning, Marella rises from the bed and stretches again. Everything is sore. Not as bad as yesterday, but still sore.

She catches a glance of herself in the mirror and instantly regrets it. Her hair is an absolute _disaster._ The less said about it, the better- but did Linh really see her looking that ugly? Now Marella wants to sink into a hole even _more._ After about thirty seconds of that not working, she just sighs and starts brushing it out, yelping aloud on some of the more stubborn knots.

She really wants to change into one of the beautiful flannel shirts calling to her from the pile of clothes she has, but sadly, that's not Exillium dress code, so she changes into the uniform and studies herself in the mirror. She looks decent, at least. Kinda pretty. Most elves are. But probably not pretty enough for Linh to stare at her and lose the ability to function as an elf.

Even if Linh was interested in girls. Which there's only a very, very, very small chance of. Because Marella's basically the only gay person she knows of in existence, other than the humans who created the term.

(Okay, so humans have good food and words for people who like the same gender. Plus, cool movies that she's watched with Dex before. So maybe humans aren't altogether terrible.)

With another lengthy sigh, Marella stops lamenting on her pathetic love life and makes her way downstairs. Partially because she wants to arrive at Exillium on time, but also because the cinnamon roll smell is making her mouth water.

And they do not disappoint. She finishes two helpings, and Willa gives her another cup of the medicine, promising that it's a stronger dose than usual so the symptoms won't be too severe when they're at Exillium. Marella gulps it down and takes out her leaping crystal, ready to go, but Tam and Linh take ten minutes having a whispered argument that Marella is far too kind to eavesdrop on.

Okay, fine. She does try. She just can't hear anything.

It's justified! She has a strong suspicion they're talking about her, anyway.

By the time they get to Exillium, they're definitely late. Judging by the boy with his hood down and the rope dangling above him, they probably missed a Dividing. Tam, Linh, and Marella arrived just in time to hear the blue coach proclaim him Right Hemisphere before ordering him to put his hood on.

"What do you _mean_?" whines the new kid. "It's bad enough your masks force me to hide this gorgeous face from the world, but now you want me to obscure my Hair too!? This is an outrage." His hood remains down. His Hair is definitely good looking, artfully messed up, though Marella isn't that attracted to him, considering she isn't interested in boys. Still, the Hair looks oddly familiar... well, this kid must have gone to Foxfire.

Coach Rohana looks like she wants to throttle him. "You have to wear the hood. Those are the rules."

"Well, screw the rules!" he exclaims.

Marella nudges Linh. Even though the coaches are all distracted by that boy, she keeps her voice in as low a whisper as possible as she says "I kinda like this kid."

Linh tilts her head and mouths _Why?_

She shrugs. "Because he doesn't like rules?" Linh shrugs too and nods.

_Well, I don't like him,_ Tam shadow whispers. _He seems annoying._

" _You're_ annoying," says Linh. "But we keep you around." Marella claps a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh. Tam looks very, deeply annoyed.

Eventually, the coaches manage to convince the kid to wear the hood and lessons proceed as usual. Body temperature regulation, which means Marella nearly freezes to death. But she isn't quite complaining, because Linh realizes that it's smart to huddle together for warmth. Marella enjoys that very much, but she's still glad when Coach Rohana announces that it's lunchtime. And they can eat in a normal temperature.

Surprisingly, the new kid approaches them rather than the other way around. "Hi, guys!" he whispers. "Can I sit with you?" He carries two orange fruits that Marella knows to be ridiculously sour.

Before she can tell him that, Tam hisses "You're not supposed to get two."

The boy shrugs. "They never said I couldn't." He glances over his shoulder to make sure none of the coaches are nearby. One would think they'd keep an eye on this boy after he tried so hard to disobey them earlier, but nope. "I'm Keefe."

Marella's mouth forms an O of recognition. She does remember him from Foxfire- even if she didn't know him personally, everyone knew of Keefe Sencen. Perpetrator of the Great Gulon Incident, object of affection for half of the Foxfire's straight female population within acceptable age limits. (The other half belongs to Wonderboy.) "How'd you end up here?" she asks.

Keefe smirks. "That's for me to know and you to never find out."

"It's probably super boring and that's why he doesn't want to tell us," says Tam with an eye roll.

"How dare you!" Keefe gasps, clutching his chest. "It was super epic, Bangs Boy." He reaches out and brushes Tam's wrist. "Besides, you're totally in awe of me- I'm an Empath, I can tell."

"Well, I'm a Shade, and your shadowvapor says you're evil."

"Yeah, 'cause looking this good should be a crime!"

"You're not-"

"My Empathy says otherwise."

Tam's head looks like it's about to explode, so Linh steps in. "Anyway, welcome to Exillium. I'm Linh and this is my brother Tam. And that's Marella."

Everyone falls silent as a coach walks by. Marella barely breathes. For someone who breaks rules so much, she's very afraid of getting caught.

"So anyway, why do you want to sit with us?" Marella asks, biting into what looks like a banana (the deadliest weapon of all) but tastes even sweeter.

"Well, the Exillium rules say that waywards aren't allowed to get close to one another, and then you guys huddled together like penguins, which was honestly kind of adorable, but also very much not following the rules. And as you might have guessed, I don't like rules, nor people who follow rules. So you guys seem fun."

"We're not," says Tam. "You're going to get us in trouble."

Right after he says it, the red coach calls "You four! No talking!"

"Anyway, nice meeting you," Marella whispers in a voice barely louder than breathing.

_You too,_ Keefe mouths, before biting into lunch. Despite it being sour almost to the point where it's inedible, Keefe seems to like it. Weirdo. He even eats the second one, somehow, finishing just before the waywards are called back to their lessons. That brings more cold, but also more practically hugging Linh, which Marella would say cancels out, until finally, they can leave. Marella takes out her leaping crystal to go back to her cave, but Linh assures her- with Tam's reluctant agreement- that she's welcome at their house.

When she goes into Linh's room to change into that glorious, glorious flannel, she sees her imparter buzzing with a missed call from Dex. She grabs it as she heads downstairs, passing Linh in the same tank top she was wearing that morning and a dark blue pencil skirt, forgetting how to breathe, and finally sitting down in the woods near the house before calling Dex back.

Dex's face appears, sweaty and flushed. "The triplets just chased me around for like an hour," he pants. "Honestly, they're monsters. Anyway, hi, Marella!" His eyes narrow as he looks around. "This isn't your cave."

"Nope. I'm staying with some other waywards for now. But first, you need to answer some questions. Keefe Sencen just showed up at Exillium- what the heck happened!? Give me details! Was it awesome? I can't believe I missed this!"

Dimples showing, Dex nods. "Yeah, it was pretty epic. You remember I told you that there were rumors of a _greater_ gulon incident going around?"

Marella holds her breath in excitement. "Yeah..."

"Well, those rumors turned out to be true-mors!"

"First of all, please don't call them that," says Marella. "Second of all, AHH! That's awesome! What was it like? Tell me everything!"

"Hey, true-mors is a great word," Dex argues, glaring teasingly. His expression morphs back into a wide smile. "It was absolutely _amazing._ So, he kind of did the same thing as last time, but he added imps, tomples, muskogs... basically all of the smelly and/or chaotic animals. Plus, he covered all of Dame Alina's prized possessions with that smelly selkie skin and they are absolutely _destroyed._ Rest assured, I did videotape the aftermath, and will send it to you as soon as I figure out how. Shouldn't be long."

Laughing, Marella proclaims that "Awesome!"

"So, now you have to tell me everything. Like, um, where the heck are you?"

"So, remember I told you about Linh?" says Marella, already blushing.

"Ooh! Is this her house?" Barely a second passes between when Marella nods and when Dex continues with "Did you move in? Did you guys get married!? How dare you not invite me to be your best man!"

"I'm literally twelve, Dex, we are not getting married," argues Marella, her face on fire. Not literally, though that would be possible. She's just blushing very hard. Possibly hotter than fire. "Also, that's kind of illegal. Also, she's probably not even interested in girls, and definitely not interested in me."

"Oh, so the main problem with your marriage is that she's not interested in you? But you didn't mention not being interested in her, so does that mean you _are_? Does Marella have a _cruuush_?"

"You're as bad as the triplets," mutters Marella.

"But do you?"

"A little bit." From the way Dex whoops and cheers, Marella thinks she might be hearing it firsthand and not through the imparter. If possible, Marella's face reddens further. "It's not even a big crush! I just think she's absolutely gorgeous and super nice and I get butterflies in my stomach every time I see her and I really want to hold her hand... okay, fine, I'm kind of smitten. Happy?"

"Very."

"Okay, but even if I like her, that's not going to happen! Most girls don't like girls like boys do! And I'm a walking disaster who makes a fool of myself every time I see her! And we barely even get to talk at Exillium, that's the rule."

"Marella, she's letting you stay at her _house_."

"Only for a few days, and that's because I'm sick! Anyway, there is absolutely no chance she likes me, okay? So I'm just going to ignore the crush and hope it disappears."

Dex's smile shifts from teasing to serious. "I wouldn't give up hope."

"Well, I would," Marella mutters, and hangs up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww, Marella, don't be such a pessimist!  
> Says Simone, who is literally getting her 2021 calendar from Despair.com.  
> Anyway... go check out Girls Like Girls! It's a Sophiana fanfic to (le gasp) Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko! And it's really good! Also go check out my Tumblr, gay-otlc. I can be occasionally funny on there. And, as always, I love comments.


	11. x

The next day brings one of the most wonderful things in the world- a weekend. Marella sleeps until slightly past noon, woken up only by the impossibly bright sunlight streaming through the window. She takes her time with the transition from sleep to wakefulness, but finally emerges from the bed, brushes her hair, and changes into- _guess what-_ flannel, before making her way downstairs.

When she walks into the kitchen, Tam and Linh are so engrossed in what sounds like a debate that they literally don't notice her eating the deadliest weapon. She means, a banana. It takes a lot of _very_ exaggerated and slightly concerning throat clearing for those to notice her.

"Marella! Hi!" says Linh, finally pausing her conversation to acknowledge Marella's presence. One would think Marella would be used to this by now, but no, her jaw still drops upon seeing the Hydrokinetic. She struggles to pick it up off the floor.

The conversation with Dex probably made it worse. _May he be cursed with the power of a thousand bananas._ After acknowledging her crush on Linh out loud, to another elf, it's become a lot more... real. And acknowledging her lack of having a chance made _that_ a lot more real too.

"I was starting to wonder whether you were dead," Tam says in a monotone. He doesn't look up from the muffin he's eaten.

"I like sleeping in," defends Marella. Something about Tam makes her feel like he's threatening her, even if he's doing nothing to actually make her think that. Still, she kind of gets the impression that he knows about her crush on his sister. The sister he's very, unbelievably protective of, in fact. And he doesn't like it. "So, um, what were you guys talking about that's obviously more interesting than me?"

"I'm sorry we made you feel-"

"She's joking, Linh." Tam rolls his eyes. "Though she's also right."

"Tam!" she scolds. "What has Marella done to you?"

"Um... invade my house, probably almost set you on fire at least once, oh, and worst of all, introduced me to _Sencen_."

"You had a two minute conversation!" exclaims Marella.

"And those were the worst two minutes of my life. He's _completely_ insufferable, and obnoxious, and-"

"Hot?" Linh asks, raising an eyebrow.

Both Marella and Tam look like they're going to strangle someone, or explode, or possibly both, but most likely for very different reasons. The Shade is clearly upset his sister is suggesting that he might have a crush on Keefe Sencen, and especially mad that she might not be completely incorrect. Marella, on the other hand, doesn't like Linh thinking of Keefe as hot. Or thinking of any boy as hot. Or _anyone,_ other than Marella, which would never happen (body temperature excluded). So, Marella is upset at Linh finding anyone hot.

 _Come on, Marella. She's obviously into boys. And Keefe_ is _probably hot. For a boy. Who she likes. If she has to like a boy, Linh could do a lot worse than Keefe._

All three of them seem to want the subject changed, and Marella is more than happy to oblige. "So, you never actually told me what you guys were talking about."

Linh nods and runs her hand through her long hair. Marella wants to do the same, and has to stuff her hands in her pockets to refrain. (Ah, pockets!) "So, Bidi brought a newspaper from the Lost Cities, and we were discussing the article on the front page." Biting her lip, she gives the paper to Marella, who scans the headline.

_CONFUSED TEENAGE HOPEFULS STAND TRIAL FOR RIGHT TO BE ON EACH OTHERS' MATCH LISTS._

_Hayley Quint, a sixteen year old Mesmer, and Shoshana Ozu, her close friend, went to the Matchmakers together three days ago with an impossible request- "We want the chance to be on each others' match lists."_

Marella's eyes widen. This article- it's about people like her. Girls who like girls. And it can't end well for them. Her stomach sinks as she quickly reads the rest.

_Matchmaker Ceri Glaser was confused, and pointed out that both girls were, of course, female, and therefore could not be together. One of the matchmaking goals is, of course, proliferation- the increase of numbers for our species, and it is clearly impossible for two girls to reproduce._

_"But we love each other," said Ozu, her hand intertwined with Quint's._

_Glaser explained that they did, in fact, love each other, in the way best friends do. Their platonic affection is so strong that they mistook it for romantic feelings, but were in reality just confused._

_"But we're not confused," Quint argued. "I've known for years that I like both girls and boys, long before I met Shoshana. And she's had crushes on lots of boys too, but describes how she feels about me to feel exactly the same."_

_Knowing that there would be no reasoning with the two girls, Glaser denied their request to have girls on a girl's match list, and sent them home, thinking that would be the end of it._

_It wasn't._

_Ozu used her parents' status in the Nobility [see their reaction to what happened to their daughter, page FOUR] to secure an audience with Councillor Oralie. The Councillor agreed to a tribunal._

_Hundreds, maybe thousands of people came to watch these two friends defend their case. Ozu did most of the talking, explaining how she and Quint met, became friends, and eventually fell in what they thought to be love. "Humans," she said, "Are ahead of us for becoming a better society, at least towards people like me. Girls who love girls- we're called lesbian. Boys who love boys are gay. People who love both are bisexual, like Hayley. But no matter what, love is love. The humans have realized this. They celebrate love. And when_ humans _are better than elves, we know there's a problem."_

_Of course, this statement sparked outrage. Humans are disgusting, filthy creatures, and can never be compared to the majesty of elves! After a long, telepathic debate, the two girls were sentenced to Exillium. Some of the audience booed at this ruling, but most cheered._

_Just before Ozu and Quint could be taken away, Quint screamed to get everyone's attention. In tears, she explained how she fell so in love with Ozu that she just had to have her, no matter how wrong it was. When Ozu rejected her, because she only liked boys (as she should), Quint turned to Mesmerizing to win her affections. She'd planned to keep that up forever, but couldn't wrongfully send the girl she loves to Exillium. Ozu's demeanor suddenly changed, as though the Mesmerizing had been lifted, and agreed with Quint's words._

_Hayley Quint is set to enter Exillium at the start of next week, while Shoshana Ozu will undergo Washing in order to forget these horrific events._

Eyes sparkling with tears, Marella folds the newspaper back up and hands it to Linh. "That's... that's awful, what they did to those girls."

"You think so?" says Linh, and Marella's mind starts to race with _oh mallowmelt what if she doesn't agree what if she thinks these girls deserved what they got what if she doesn't like gay people what if she think's they're disgusting and wrong and-_ but her face morphs to a sad smile. "I'm glad you're not the type to hate people for who they are."

Marella swallows a lump in her throat. Talking is impossibly hard. What are words? She doesn't know them. "I... um... yeah. Not the type. It's... the girls can't choose who to love... but we can choose not to hate them for it... so we shouldn't. Love is love?"

To be honest, that mostly sounded like gibberish to her, but Linh nods along, so hopefully she did something right. "Do you think Hayley was lying to get Shoshana out of trouble, or just finally confessing? Because we definitely know she's bisexual, but this wouldn't even be the first time a Mesmer abused their powers to make a girl love them, so... do you think Hayley's one of them?"

"No, I think they were dating for real," Marella says. It's a little easier to talk now. A little less nerve wracking. "She probably Mesmerized Shoshana into agreeing with her."

"Definitely," agrees Linh. Even Tam nods. "Now, for the harder question- do you think those girls should have stayed quiet about who they were?"

"That's what we were arguing about when you came in." Tam takes another bite of his muffin.

"Well..." Marella stays quiet for a bit, thinking. "I don't know. Their lives would definitely be _easier_ if they didn't tell anyone, if they just chose not to get match lists and stayed single, keeping their relationship a secret. But an easier life doesn't necessarily equate to a better one."

"No, but it definitely can," argues Tam. "Some things are worth struggling for, I get that, blah blah blah. But when one girlfriend's mind is wiped and the other has been banished, maybe that's a little too much struggling. At least if they had chosen _easy_ , they would still be together."

Linh jumps into the argument. "They would be together, but they would live in constant fear of getting caught. And it was bound to happen eventually. Elves are immortal. They had an eternity for it to happen. It would have. At least now, they can live authentically and without being afraid. People shouldn't have to be afraid to be themselves."

"No, but we can't just make people change their minds so no one has to be afraid! And even if they're living in fear, they're _fearing_ the consequences instead of _facing_ those consequences."

"I don't think people should have to hide who they are," whispers Linh.

Marella's lips part. It would be so easy. Linh has given her the most perfect opportunity there is. And she already knows Linh would accept her. If Linh accepted those strangers, why not Marella? She doesn't have to tell Linh which girl she likes, just that she likes them in general. _I agree_ , she would say. _I'm done with hiding. I'm... I'm lesbian._

She can't predict what exactly Linh would say, but it would be positive. Maybe she'd get a hug. Maybe, just maybe, she'd get a "me too."

_Okay. That's dumb. Just tell her, don't expect her to be gay as well. She's probably just an ally._

"I agree," Marella says. Making words seems about a million times more hard. "I'm..."

_Say it. "I'm lesbian." It's two words. Four syllables. It'll take like two seconds, then it'll be over with. Just say it._

"I'm..."

Tam remains expressionless as always, but Linh tilts her head to the side slightly, lifting her eyebrows. Her eyes widen, giving Marella a clearer view of the irises. Silvery blue. Beautiful. Perfect.

_Say it._

"I'm..."

"But people shouldn't have to come out until they're ready," interrupts Tam. "If those girls weren't ready to tell people this thing they've been forced by society to keep secret for so long for fear of being shamed, they shouldn't have had to tell anyone. They shouldn't have felt obligated to let people know because they wanted the chance to get married someday. Gay and lesbian and bisexual people should get to keep it a secret as long as they want. Especially since it's not really anyone's business who they're interested in dating, so no one actually needs to know."

Linh nods. "That, I guess I agree with."

Marella's posture relaxes. She doesn't have to feel bad about not being ready yet. When people found out before she was ready last time, she set the place on fire. Perhaps she should not do that to Tam and Linh's house.

_I don't have to say it._

"Marella, you were saying?"

"I'm... really sad this happened to those girls."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I one hundred percent agree. Say it with me, kids:
> 
> PEOPLE! ! ! SHOULD! ! ! NOT! ! ! HAVE! ! ! TO! ! ! COME! ! ! OUT! ! ! UNLESS! ! ! THEY! ! ! TRULY! ! ! WANT! ! ! TO! ! !
> 
> No outing people! Absolutely none. Nope. Nuh uh. Never. And don't guilt people into coming out either. Especially in a potentially unsafe situation.
> 
> I came out to my mom when I was still struggling with a lot of internalized homophobia, and even though she was accepting, I absolutely hated the experience. Since the LGBTQ+ community has made Being Out ™ such a huge thing, I felt obligated, but I wasn't ready and now I'll never get to have a good first coming out experience. Can we stop making that such a giant expectation?
> 
> Anyway... here is the introduction of a poorly disguised Hayley Kiyoko who I'm probably a bit too in love with. Also, I don't know if elves have newspapers, but just roll with it. Go check out Girls Like Girls for some actual Hayley Kiyoko content, and please comment!


	12. xi

The weekend passed all too quickly, Marella reflects with a sigh.

Dex had sent the video of the Greater Gulon Incident, and it gave Marella some much needed laughs after the rather depressing homophobic article. It was oddly cold, and Marella didn't have any jackets of her own, so she had to borrow a hoodie from Linh. (And she let her keep it!) The gnomes declared Marella healed and no longer in need of the medicine.

Probably the most noteworthy thing happened soon after that.

"Well, since I'm not sick anymore..." Marella's voice had trailed off. She already half regretted what she was about to say, but it wasn't fair to Linh if she continued to stay without needing to. "It's probably safe for me to go back to my cave."

Not that she wanted to go back. After spending a few days here, she already could barely remember what it was like to live in a cold, dark cave, with only an imparter and flannel for company. Not that flannel wasn't wonderful, but it was nothing compared to Linh's company. And Tam's. ...sort of.

Linh has titled her head to the side. Her silvery blue eyes widened slightly. She looked... almost sad?

_Don't be ridiculous. She probably doesn't care all that much about you. And maybe if she is sad, it's because she liked having someone other than Tam for company; not because she likes your company in particular._

"Would you prefer to live there?" Linh asked.

 _Is she a Telepath?_ Marella wondered. Out loud, she answered "Not really, but I don't want to invade your house longer than necessary."

"You're not inva-"

Tam had appeared out of the shadows, his usual scowl on his face. "She kind of is."

"Tam!"

"What?"

Linh huffed. "Can I talk to you?" she asked, gesturing towards the room next to them; the kitchen.

"Sure," Tam answered with a shrug. The scowl stayed on his face.

"You guys can stay here," said Marella, her mouth forming the words clumsily. "I'll go... pack?"

"You don't have to-"

Tam interrupted. "Good idea." His eyes- the same color as Linh's, but somehow much colder- lingered on her, seeming to make her shrink under his piercing gaze. When the state boring into her got to be too much, she ducked out of the room.

Okay, Marella would be lying if she said she didn't try to listen in on the twins' conversation, but it didn't work. They were being obnoxiously quiet, and after about a minute, Tam ordered her via shadow whispering to stop eavesdropping.

With a sigh, Marella reluctantly obeyed and went to actually go pack. The process was slow, as if she wanted to savor every second she had left in Linh's house. But eventually, all of her clothes, other possessions, and Linh's borrowed/stolen hoodie (So soft! How could anything be so soft?) made its way into her bag.

When she returned downstairs, Tam and Linh gave her the verdict: Tam won the argument. Marella was to return.

She had one last dinner with the twins, stark flower stew cooked by the gnomes, before the sun tinted the sky pink and gold and Marella decided- with some help from Tam- that it was time to go.

"You have an imparter, right?" Linh asked. Marella nodded. "Then I'll hail you, I guess."

"Sounds good," said Marella, hopefully calmly, though her mind screamed _SHE WANTS TO TALK TO ME!_ The gay panic worsened when Linh hugged her. _Hugged her!_ It wouldn't have surprised Marella if her face literally caught on fire.

Eventually, though, after some rather loud throat clearing from Tam, they separated. Marella could barely squeak out a "bye!" before light leaping away.

"And that's what's going on with Linh." Marella finishes her story with a sigh. "Though I don't know why you were so desperate to know."

Dex grins, dimples showing. "Because I'm overly invested in shipping you two, mostly because I have no love of my own."

"Okay, if you want to ship someone, you should ship Keefe and Tam!"

"Keefe Sencen and... your brother in law?" His grin widens.

Marella fumes. "I swear, if we were talking in person and not over imparter, your head would not be attached to your body."

"This is why you should never tell your friends your crush, Marella. Honestly, I thought you should know this."

"I _do_ know not to tell you! You guessed it!"

"Oh yeah. So, back to this Keefe and Tam thing. Kam? Teefe?"

"Yeah. Keefe likes flirting with Tam, and Tam likes grumbling about Keefe while blushing."

"Hmm. I do like that, but I much prefer tormenting you."

Marella flops back on her bed. "The world is cruel," she deadpans.

"Yep! Anyway, Dad wants me to help out at Slurps and Burps, so I better go. Talk to you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sounds good," says Marella, nodding. "Bye!"

"Bye!" Dex replies, and his image disappears with a _click._ Marella tosses the imparter onto a pile of clothes and rolls over on her bed. It feels a lot different from the sleeping bag she slept in at Linh's. Honestly, that was more comfortable. Nothing about this cave is very comfortable.

She's homesick for a place that isn't actually her home.

Or maybe she's just homesick for Linh.

She's also tired. Marella tries her best to keep silver eyed Hydrokinetics from her dreams as she falls asleep.

It doesn't work.

When she wakes up, it takes her a second to realize where she is. She's grown so accustomed to waking up in Linh's bedroom that adjusting back to Cave Bedroom is difficult. If she closes her eyes again, she can almost smell those delicious cinnamon rolls baking downstairs, hear Linh's footsteps coming to wake her because she's probably going to be late for Exillium...

_Oh. Right. Late for Exillium. Something I probably shouldn't be._

With a groan, Marella half rolls half climbs out of bed. Her eyes are still somewhat shut as she changes into the Exillium uniform and takes a bite of an apple. She doesn't have all that much food left, she notes, so some more thievery is probably necessary soon. Hopefully with a banana to defend herself.

Still half asleep, she leaps to Exillium. And she's not even late! There's a Dividing going on when she arrives, and it's not her own this time. Instead of watching, her eyes seek Tam and Linh in the crowd. She doesn't find them. Trying to ignore the sinking feeling of disappointment, Marella returns her attention to the new wayward trying to escape the rope.

Their hands fumble at the knot, likely trying to untie it, but after a few minutes, they have to accept it won't work. Simply struggling, twisting around, doesn't have much effect either. The new wayward flops back upside down. They stay that way for at least a minute, dangling in defeat, until they do a sit up and latch on to the rope. Their head turns to face the crowd.

"Untie me," they say.

Marella really wants to untie them. It's the only thought in her mind; everything else is just... foggy. Before her brain can make the conscious decision, she feels her legs walking over. A glance around shows the rest of the waywards to be doing the same. With all of them working at the knot, it's untied easily, and the hoards of elves breaks the new person's fall. Only then does Marella's head clear.

"A mesmer," someone murmurs.

The dots connect in Marella's head. A new wayward, recently banished, who is a mesmer. There can't be a lot of them, and one of them is Hayley Quint.

The bisexual girl who tried to get her girlfriend on a match list, lied to protect said girlfriend at a tribunal, and got sent to Exillium. The one who Marella is sort of in awe of.

And considering they got an entire group of teenage criminals to cheat at the dividing, Marella's respect for Hayley has honestly grown. On the other hand, the coaches are not feeling that same admiration. Contrary to that, they're yelling. Eventually, though, it's decided that Hayley will join the Ambi hemisphere.

The skill for the day is appetite suppression, which is immensely annoying, especially since Marella only had an apple for breakfast. The growling of her stomach can probably be heard all the way back at Foxfire. Instead of lunch at lunchtime, the waywards get time to drink water. Which is good, since dehydration is very much not fun, but Marella would still really like food. She uses the time she spends not eating to go find Linh and Tam.

And she does find them- _talking to Keefe._ Tam doesn't look particularly happy about it, but his face also looks like a tomato. A scowling tomato. Keefe seems to be enjoying Tam's scowling tomato state immensely, and Linh is very amused. Marella joins her in laughing, and tries not to think about how she's being rather hypocritical, considering she gets mad at Dex for this same behavior. She also tries not to think about Linh's arm that somehow got slung around Marella's shoulders. Maybe Linh is kind of weak from being hungry, and she's just using Marella to stay upright.

The conversation moves from whining about hunger to discussing Hayley and Shoshana (Haylana, Keefe has dubbed them) to Tam muttering about how the Greater Gulon Incident wasn't _that_ great and back to hunger whining, pausing only when coaches enter the general vicinity. Finally, though, they're called back to sit in silence and try to not be hungry.

It doesn't work all that well, but eventually the sun dips below the sky and they're dismissed. Although her stomach screams in protest, Marella refrains from leaping to her cave immediately, instead opting to stay and look for Hayley. She's pretty easily found, considering she painted her Exillium hood rainbow. The coaches obviously aren't pleased with it (Marella could hear them yelling) but the only other alternative is for her to show her face, and the coaches don't like that either. Again, Marella's respect for the other girl grows. She wonders if she could paint her own hood.

Or wear flannel to Exillium.

Since the day at Exillium is technically over, they can't be punished for breaking Exillium rules. Well, they probably could, but they would have a fairly solid defense. The coaches appear to have left, though, so Marella isn't too worried. She's more worried about seeming like an awkward fangirl around Hayley.

Which, to be fair, she kind of is.

"Um, hi," she says, sweeping her hood out of her face. Instantly, Marella grabs a strand of hair and twists it around between her fingers. "I, um, really like your rainbow hood."

Hayley does the same with her hood. The girl has dark skin and a cloud of coily black hair around her face. If Marella wasn't so clearly infatuated with Linh, she might find this girl gay panic inducingly pretty. "Thanks!"

Awkwardly, Marella shifts her weight from one foot to the other. Words? What are they? "Um... I read the article the other day, about you and your girlfriend Shoshana..." She's surprised at how easily the word _girlfriend_ rolls off her tongue, even when addressing another girl.

"Oh yeah, the article!" Hayley laughs. "Wow, I really am famous! But okay, um, what about it?"

"Well, you're the first person I've met who likes the same gender. The first person who's..." Marella swallows. "Like me." She takes a deep breath. "I've spent the last six or so months hating that I had to like girls. That I couldn't just like boys and live an easier life. But knowing that there are other queer people out there, that helps me feel... not as alone."

Hayley's bright smile eases her nerves a little bit. Marella's done it- she's told someone. Who isn't Dex. The last time she told someone, she set everything on fire. This is a lot better, but still terrifying. "Kid, I wish things would be easier for you. Mallowmelt knows I needed things to be easier for me when I was your age. But some girls like girls like boys do, nothing new. People are going to hate you for it, but screw them. Love yourself for who you love. Own it. Be proud."

Breathing is so much easier now. Was it ever this easy? Has it been this easy at any point since Marella realized she wasn't straight? Even when she told Dex, and Dex didn't leave her, or show disgust, that felt like he tolerated her sexuality at best. But now? Now she feels truly validated. Like her sexuality isn't an inconvenience to be "accepted." It's simply a part of her. "How did you... That was the exact perfect thing to say. How did you know to say that?"

"Because it's what I wish someone had told me when I was in your position." Hayley offers another smile, more sad this time. "What's your name, kid?"

"Marella."

"I'm Hayley, but I think you know that already. Well, Marella, you've got to be... what, the eighth?... person to approach me with something similar to today. Based on LGBT statistical information, it's heavily skewed towards waywards. I have kind of a theory that the system is designed against us. The council is fighting against our existence."

"We should fight back," blurts Marella, before she can even think about the words, pause to consider them. The thought had never formed in her brain; they just seemed to erupt from a place inside her she didn't know existed. But once she processes what she said, she doesn't disagree with that place inside her. She agrees. Repeats it. "We should fight back."

Hayley is quiet for a long time, long enough to make Marella want to sink into a hole. Just before she's about to apologize and leap away in a hurry, Hayley speaks. "I love that idea. Let the gay revolution commence!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> G A Y R E V O L U T I O N


	13. xii

It's not entirely clear how it happened, but several days after Marella met her new idol, she sits in the basement of Hayley Quint- _Hayley Quint-_ surrounded by maybe fifteen or so other queer revolutionaries. She also has no idea how Hayley has an entire house, one even nicer than Tam and Linh's, but all becomes clear when a dark skinned, taller girl with intricately braided hair walks downstairs, refers to Hayley as "babe," explains how her parents will be gone for the next three hours, and finally introduces herself as Shoshana Ozu.

"So," says Hayley once the chatter in the room dies down. "I think it would be best to start out by-"

The sound of a door opening and slamming into the wall with the force cuts her off. "Sorry I'm late," puffs a bronze skinned girl, sweeping her blue-streaked brown hair into a ponytail. "Hopefully you guys didn't do too much without me- I want to be in the room where the gay revolution happens. I'm super gay. Well, bi, but gay."

Shoshana smiles at her. "You didn't miss much. Have a seat."

This new girl sits down next to Marella on a very soft blue couch. She reaches into her pocket and holds out a slice of mallowmelt. Marella's mouth waters at the sight, and nearly faints from joy when the girl says "Want one?" Without even questioning why she has mallowmelt in her pocket, Marella accepts. How long has it been since she's eaten the food of pure joy? Far, far too long indeed.

Clearing her throat, Hayley continues from where she was before the mallowmelt girl entered. "We should probably start out by introducing ourselves, though I must say, I'm probably not going to remember anyone's name. But I'll start! My name is Hayley, she/her, and I'm bisexual. My girlfriend Shoshana is named Shoshana- _I know, what a shock-_ her pronouns are also she and her, and she's lesbian."

The person sitting closest to Hayley, a lanky, androgynous elf with choppy light brown hair, clears their throat. "I'm Eris. They/them. I'm pan and non binary." After Eris, a tall girl with long whitish hair introduces herself as Crysta, and next is Ashley, who has dark shoulder length hair and golden brown skin. Marella's head starts to spin from the names once the group gets to Shalle, a genderfluid pansexual who's gender neutral today and has short strawberry blonde hair falling into their eyes.

No one has said their age, but Marella feels like she's one of the youngest at twelve years old- everyone else looks at least two or three years older than her. The thought makes her somewhat self conscious, and butterflies are floating in her stomach when the mallowmelt girl nudges her. "Hey. Your turn," she whispers.

Marella jumps a little in surprise. "Oh. Um. I'm Marella. Uh, she/her. And I'm gay. Like, _reaaaaaaaaaally_ gay." It's surprising how easily the words slip out, but it probably helps that everyone in the room is also aggressively not straight. She notices she's been chewing on her lip to the point where she'd drawn blood, and stops. Slowly, as eyes start to drift away from her, she relaxes and takes another bite of her almost finished mallowmelt.

Mallowmelt girl steals the attention. She seems to enjoy it a lot more. "Greetings, fellow gays! I am Cara, a chaotic bisexual! My pronouns are she and her. Oh, I'm also slightly mallowromantic. That means I'm attracted to mallowmelt."

Everyone laughs, including Marella. She takes another bite of her mallowmelt, noting that she might be slightly mallowromantic as well.

The door opens again, and two more elves walk through. Marella's mallowmelt falls out of her mouth as she recognizes them. Very well. And happens to have a crush on one. The other kind of scares her.

"I'm really sorry we're late!" Linh exclaims. "Tam didn't want to come, but I finally talked him into it." Next to her, Tam rolls his eyes. Linh ignores him as her silvery blue eyes fall on Marella. Marella blushes as Linh calls her name. "Hi!"

Her face grows hotter as she waves Linh over to have a seat. The Hydrokinetic obliges, sitting on the side of Marella not taken by Mallowromantic Cara, and Tam reluctantly follows while rolling his eyes again. Marella swallows. The butterflies return to her stomach. Her throat feels much, much drier than it did ten seconds ago, and worse, the mallowmelt is gone! Oh, however will she survive? She swallows again. "The gayest person here welcomes you to the revolution," she manages, the words spilling out before she has time to overthink them.

Before she can regret saying it, a chorus of voices fill the room, all protesting with various forms of "No, _I'm_ the gayest gay here!" Hayley raises her hands and the group falls silent. "Guys," she says. "Clearly I'm the gayest."

"Babe, you're bi," replies Shoshana. Hayley opens her mouth to argue, but her girlfriend kisses her on the cheek and she blushes furiously, no longer in possession of a response. Along with everyone else in the room, Marella finds herself _aww_ ing. The effortless comedy of the last thirty or so seconds calms her panic, and she finds herself laughing along with the group. Linh laughs too, silver eyes sparkling, and Marella nearly forgets how to breathe.

"So, um, I'm Linh," she says, giving a shy little wave that makes Marella want to melt into a puddle of crushing goo. "She and her. I'm not entirely sure how to label myself, but I definitely like girls."

An explosion takes place. Well, in Marella's head, but it's still an explosion. She screams internally. She may have screamed externally- it's under debate. Her hands fly to her mouth. Everything in her wants to keep screaming, to bounce up and down for eternity, to dance and twirl and shriek to Dex and celebrate the fact that Linh _does_ like girls, despite the odds not being in Marella's favor for that, but Linh likes girls and Marella is a girl and that means Marella has a chance. A small chance, because not everyone attracted to females is attracted to Marella specifically, but a _chance,_ and that's more than Marella ever could have dreamed of.

She feels like she could run a marathon without even trying. Like she could fly and not literally fall for Linh. Like she could do anything she wants, because she is just _so_ elated, and it feels like a fire is burning in her chest. Not like panic or anger, but like it's burning after a long time in the cold, spreading comfortable warmth to every inch of Marella's body.

Oh. Wait. A fire _is_ actually burning. Literally. Smoke rises from Marella's hands, small flames licking her fingers. Horrified, she shoves them behind her back and turns red. Her blush deepens when Linh's cold hands touch hers, dousing them with water so the fire disappears in a little burst of steam. The fact that they kind of sort of held hands does not improve Marella's gay panic.

Somehow, Marella manages to refocus on what's actually going on- Tam rolling his eyes still and giving his introduction in a monotone. "Tam. He and him. Gay."

Lifting her eyebrows, Marella's only thought is _Ooh, maybe he_ does _like Keefe!_ As though Linh read her mind, she turns to Marella and nods, mouthing _Keefe. Tam. Ship._

A tall elf with one leg slung over the arm of the couch clears their throat. "Hi! My name's Bella, female pronouns," she says. "I'm pan. Oh, and if anyone else is trans- the people who run Slurps and Burps can make some elixirs for the transition. I started taking them about two months ago." A few people around the room nod and thank her.

The next person to introduce himself is Cal, who has a green mohawk and is a straight trans boy, and the elf beside him is a short panromantic asexual girl named Lucia. Mirasol, who has very dark skin and coily black hair, says she's asexual and still figuring out her romantic orientation.

After that, Marella recognizes the person next, and gasps because her Keefe/Tam ship might really happen! Keefe is bisexual, and she could have _sworn_ he winked at Tam when he said that. Tam very obviously blushed. Linh nearly squealed. A guy named Hugo who looks like he's nearly an adult says he's gay, a turquoise-haired, aro ace, nonbinary elf named Eve introduces her/themself, and then Hayley announces that they'd gotten to everyone.

(Thank goodness, because Marella was starting to have trouble with keeping all of those names straight. And yes, she does snicker a little at her pun.)

"So," says Hayley, running a hand through her dark hair in dozens of little braids. "I guess the eventual goal of the gay revolution is to let LGBT people not be punished for their identity, and to get people of the same gender on match lists. Anything else?"

The tall girl who still can't sit properly in a chair- Ella? Stella? Bella?- raises her hand. "The right for trans people to have their gender changed on official records, switch Foxfire uniforms, and get access to the necessary transition elixirs."

Shoshana nods and writes that down. "Anything else?"

Without raising their hand, Shalle says "Getting non binary recognized as a real gender."

"Good, good," mutters Shoshana, pen flying across the page.

Tam, the last person Marella had expected to volunteer, raises his hand tentatively. Even Linh's mouth falls open in shock. "Um... we're just kids, so I don't know how realistic this is-"

"Pfft, none of this is very realistic," Eris interrupts. "Otherwise, it'd probably already be done, considering elves have had like thousands of years to give queer people rights."

Ignoring them, Tam continues "-but maybe we could build some sort of shelter for kids and teens kicked out by their parents for being queer?"

Hayley's face lights up. "That's a great idea! Write that down, love." Shoshana grins and obliges.

Mirasol suggests adoption or surrogate parent opportunities for same sex couples or aroace elves, Lucia contributes the idea of reducing heteronormativity in what kids are taught, and Ashley offers asking for pronouns as a standard greeting. No one else has any other ideas, so Hayley declares Shoshana's scribbled bullet points the official list.

"So..." Hayley clears her throat. "Got any ideas on how to get this stuff done?"

"No idea," Marella says. "I've never gayly revolted before." Everyone else nods and mutters in agreement, looking down at their feet.

Marella can't read minds, but as her brain starts whispering _If we can't come up with any plans, how are we ever going to achieve any of this stuff? We can't, is the short answer,_ she guesses everyone else is thinking something along those lines. Even Hayley.

"Come on!" exclaims the whitish-haired girl Marella vaguely recognizes as something like Crystal or Crysta. Her Empath pin reflects light, drawing Marella's attention to it. "I know what you guys are all feeling, and you can _not_ give up this easily! We have to fight for our freedom, because it's something they can _never_ take away, no matter what they tell you!"

Shoshana nods, turning to Hayley. "She's right, babe."

Hayley runs a hand through her hair and sighs. "Yeah, she is. Thanks, Crysta. Alright, so, there's not a whole lot of us, especially compared to the entire elvin population, but I'm sure there are a whole lot of other queer people out there, and probably some straight people who are willing to help. How do we get their attention?"

Eve raises their hand tentatively. "Well... I got banished for demolishing a matchmaker's office with a pride flag-"

Snorting, Hayley says "Oh yeah, I remember seeing that! Great work. Ten out of ten."

"...so maybe we could do some sort of graffiti around the Lost Cities?" continues Eve, phrasing it like a question.

"I have no art skills, but sounds fun," Eris shrugs. The rest of the group seems to agree as well.

And that's how Marella ends up standing in front of Dame Alina's glass pyramid of an office at Foxfire, holding some cans of spray paint while Tam and Linh stand guard. She'd be lying if she says she won't take pleasure from this based on how awfully Alina treated her after she manifested, so she won't try to say that. Instead, Marella will just spray _LOVE IS LOVE_ in giant, sloppy letters before handing the spray paint to Linh.

The other girl is a lot more artistically talented than Marella, just adding to the list of reasons Marella admires her. Well, crushes on her. Admires is a little too platonic. Linh paints a pink two girls kissing, a purple boy and girl kissing, and a blue two boys kissing, with equal signs between each image. Marella's message looks even sloppier in comparison, but she's too busy admiring Linh's art to really care.

Tam's message involves a lot of profanity.

Marella finishes off with a rainbow heart before she and Linh high five. She holds her hand up to high five Tam too, but gets rejected. Oh well. She wasn't really expecting otherwise. Even Tam looks pleased with their artwork, though.

They're a lot less pleased when a male voice says "What are you delinquents doing?" With a yelp, Marella whirls around. The man is wearing a long cape and an official emissary badge. They will probably be in a lot of trouble if- when- he reports them to the council.

What else can Marella do? She blasts him with as much spray paint as she can and sprints in the opposite direction, into the empty halls of Foxfire. Tam and Linh follow, soon passing her. (She's not a very good runner.) Once they manage to lock the door of a dim classroom, all the three have to do is look at each other before bursting into laughter.

"That was _freaking_ _awesome_!" exclaims Marella, and even Tam has to agree.

Linh's silvery blue eyes, full of mirth but a little bit of seriousness, meet Marella's. "I'm glad you're safe," she says with a smile.

Marella nearly melts into a puddle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be gay, do crime.  
> Linh is queer! Keefe is bi and Tam is gay! Hayley is queen! Comments are great!


	14. xiii

"Tam, didn't you hear?" Linh squeals, skipping along. To keep up, Tam lengthens his strides while Marella does a sort of clumsy jog. "Keefe is bisexual..."

Tam kicks a rock along the path, and for the first time, Marella realize she leapt to Tam and Linh's house and is walking towards it with them. She doesn't comment, though; if they're not going to tell her she has to leave, she isn't going to pass up this chance to hang out with Linh. "So?" grumbles Tam. "Doesn't mean he likes me. And even if he does, I don't like him." He tugs at his bangs so they cover his very obviously blushing face.

"Sure," says Marella and Linh in unison. They turn to each other and break into laughter.

Tam rolls his eyes. "Linh, I can't believe you have the nerve to talk to me about Keefe when I have some obvious teasing material for retaliation."

Linh reddens, reaffirming the resemblance between her and her brother. "I don't know what you're talking about."

In a higher pitched voice, one probably _supposed_ to imitate Linh's but doesn't do a very good job of it, Tam says " _Suuuuuuuure,"_ drawing out the word for as long as he possibly can. Instead of his usual scowl, he has a bit of a smirk on his face. His sister shoves him, hissing "Stop it!"

Marella twirls her hair around her finger, wondering. Could he be... talking about her? Is he trying to tease Linh because he thinks... she likes Marella? Or is he teasing Linh about Marella obviously liking _her,_ the same way Dex would tease Marella about becoming his sister in law back when Rex kept flirting with her despite her obvious disinterest? If it's one of them, it's probably the latter. Or maybe, during the gay revolution meeting, Linh showed interest in one of the other girls there, and Marella simply didn't notice through her own gay panic.

The conversation dissolves into Tam and Linh continuing to shove each other and bicker, while Marella stands slightly behind them, silently wondering, wondering, wondering if maybe...

_Maybe._

No matter how much she wants it to, that little flicker of hope doesn't go away. It continues to burn brightly somewhere deep inside her, whispering that word _maybe_ over and over again despite the logical part of Marella viewing Linh's disinterest in her as a solid fact. The sparks of hope glow brightly even as she tries to squash them, and the word _maybe_ starts to sink into Marella's mind, even the logical part of her, until her entire body seems to whisper _maybe, maybe she does like me,_ and the flicker of hope burns, and burns...

...and burns, and so does her hand.

She blows on it frantically, hoping that will extinguish the flames that are, at the moment, no more than maybe a candle or two, but the oxygen just seems to fuel the flames, and Marella starts to panic. "Linh!" she yells, unsure if she's calling her name because Linh is a Hydrokinetic or because she simply makes Marella feel more safe.

Linh makes the decision for her and offers her Hydrokinetic services, splashing Marella's smoking hand. "Thanks," mutters Marella, keeping her eyes on the ground. Autumn leaves are starting to decorate the ground- it must be the opposite hemisphere of Foxfire, where it's heading into spring.

"No problem," says Linh, a sweet smile on her face as she brushes a black and silver lock of hair out of her face. She's so pretty it seems to physically hurt Marella. She has a cute pink button up shirt over jeans, yet somehow she looks much cuter than Marella when she simply grabs flannel and jeans from her closet and throws them on without looking. "What are you worried about?"

Of course that question was coming. Linh has an elemental power too; of course she knows that elves only lose control in times of high emotion. Marella frantically searches for a lie, because somehow, _I was excited about you maybe liking me, haha,_ wouldn't be her first choice. "I, um..."

"Are you worried about that emissary catching us?" Linh continues, and Marella puffs a sigh of relief, thankful for this brilliant excuse Linh has given her.

She nods. "Yeah... since I'm already a wayward, I'd prefer not to get in even more trouble."

"It's okay. We light leaped somewhere he doesn't know, so he can't find us." Linh smiles brightly, and Marella just wants to kiss her until she loses her breath. She shakes her head to rid herself of the impulse.

"You're right... thanks..." she manages to stammer, sure her face is on figurative fire.

"No problem."

"Get a room!" calls Tam.

"We're _talking_ ," Linh argues, glaring. Is she mad because Tam is teasing her about her... Marella can barely think the word without breaking into squeals... _crush,_ or is she mad because the very thought of her actually being romantically interested in Marella is so ridiculous it infuriates her? Daydreaming about it being the former made her set herself on fire last time, so Marella decides to focus on the latter. It's depressing, but at least she isn't setting herself up for disappointment.

"Whatever. Is she going to stay the night?" he asks, jerking his thumb at Marella like she isn't another elf with ears and eyes in the same general vicinity.

"Why don't you ask Marella? She's right here, you know." Linh turns to Marella. "Mare, would you like to sleep over?"

Marella opens her mouth to correct Linh- _no freaking nicknames._ Somehow, it doesn't sound quite so offensive on the Hydrokinetic's lips. More like music, like a soft prayer. "If it's okay with you," comes out instead.

"Sure!"

"Great," grins Marella.

"Oh, sure, don't ask the _other owner of the house._ "

"You _offered_ ," Linh snaps. "Come on, Marella." She grabs Marella's elbow, ignores Marella's half shriek, half squeal, and walks through the door and up the stairs. Linh's hand is cold, and at some point during the walk, and slips from Marella's arm to her hand. Their fingers interlace, feeling like they were made to fit together. "Sorry about Tam," she apologizes.

"Yeah, he doesn't seem to like me very much, though I don't know _what_ would give me that impression," Marella jokes.

"I really need to talk to him about being nicer to you." She frowns.

Marella shrugs. "You don't need to. It doesn't really bother me."

"It bothers _me._ You're my... you're my friend, and I want my twin brother to at least treat you with something resembling respect." What was Linh going to say before _friend_? Or was she thinking the same word the entire time, just having some trouble talking?

The slight awkwardness of the moment passes, and the two soon go downstairs for an attempt at baking mallowmelt. To Marella's surprise, she's actually better than Linh at baking. Though she's passable, the Hydrokinetic is something resembling a complete disaster in the kitchen. She doesn't like measuring things out, and ends up with a lot of flour and sugar in her hair.

Somehow, the realization that Linh isn't quite perfect doesn't make Marella like her less; quite the contrary. It makes her more like an actual person and less like an unattainable goddess, makes her slightly endearing. And it doesn't hurt that the sugary hair makes Linh looks absolutely adorable.

"Have you considered baking as a professional career?" Marella jokes as she has to stop Linh from pouring the batter into the pan before greasing it.

Linh takes a handful of flour and throws it at Marella. She ducks and yelps before laughing and tossing sugar at Linh in retaliation. Naturally, it turns into a full blown baking ingredient fight, complete with laughter and shrieks and yelling. The commotion brings Tam downstairs, who takes one look at the girls covered in various white powder and sticky mallowmelt before rolling his eyes. "Could you guys try to be a little quieter?"

His response is a handful of sugar in his face. "Hey!" he yells, snatching the bag of chocolate chips and throwing it like confetti at the other two. And, to Marella's shock, he joins in the food fight. More surprising still, he even _smiles._ "I'm not helping you clean up," he adds, taking the mallowmelt out of the oven when the timer dings and shoving a piece in his mouth. "Oh! Hot!"

"What did you think food just out of the oven was going to taste like?" deadpans Marella.

Through a mouthful of mallowmelt, Tam grumbles "Shut up," but he's still smiling.

The fight dies down soon after that in favor of cleaning so they can eat the mallowmelt as quickly as possible. True to his word, Tam doesn't help much, but Marella and Linh still enjoy themselves as they sweep and scrub and sneak chocolate chips from the bag. When they're finally done, they taste the mallowmelt. Despite Linh's baking ineptitude, it somehow comes out tasting delicious, and Marella finds herself going back for seconds and thirds before Linh stops her from eating any more. Soon after, Tam goes upstairs and Marella and Linh to the other bedroom, where they change into pajamas and discuss whether they think the gay revolution is really going to make the change they want.

Yes is the verdict, they decide, Linh falling asleep soon after. Marella watches the way her beautiful hair drapes over her beautiful face, and her lips curl into a soft smile, before she falls asleep too.

They have Exillium the next day, but it's somehow more bearable. Marella finds Shalle, the genderfluid female today with strawberry blonde hair, and Bella, the girl who can't sit in a chair. Cara gets yelled at by the coaches for passing mallowmelt around the Right Hemisphere, and Eris takes a nap. Were these people here all along? With their subtle presence- discrete glances and whispered jokes and covertly exchanged slices of mallowmelt- the week passes by far more easily than it would normally, and it's the weekend far sooner than Marella would have expected. Just before she leaps away and plans to sleep until noon the next day, Ashley comes to inform her that the Gay Revolution Society will be meeting today. She passes the message on to Tam and Linh, and they all leap to Shoshana's house.

"So!" Hayley announces, clapping her hands once everyone has settled in their wrongly positioned seats on couches. "The graffiti seems to have made quite an impact on the Lost Cities. A lot of non arrested people- both queer and straight cisgender allies- have mentioned to Shoshana a belief in the cause, including some very influential people. Well, mostly just Biana Vacker. And Keefe's involvement, as the perpetrator of not one, but _two_ Great Gulon Incidents, makes him pretty popular and therefore a lot of people are willing to support him. We have at least a hundred elves ready for a mini protest at the Matchmaker's Office."

Excited chattering makes its way around the room. That sounds terrifying to Marella, but also really fun. Linh, on the other hand, bites her lip. "Isn't that in Atlantis?" she whispers so that only Tam and Marella can hear.

Tam looks equally uncomfortable. "Yeah. Maybe you shouldn't-"

Linh nods. "Maybe not."

"What's wrong with Atlantis?" asks Marella.

"I might flood it again."

"It'd get their attention, at least. 'Support the LGBTQ+ community, or we'll flood your stuff!'"

Letting out a soft chuckle, Linh concedes that Marella may have a point.

"No one is under any obligation to go," Hayley continues. "But it'll be a heck of a lot of fun! Shoshana got a lot of rainbow stuff and pride flags."

Most of the gay revolutionaries jump up immediately and grab some rainbow stuff. Some are a little more hesitant, but everyone joins eventually. Even Linh, who looks at Marella and whispers "Drown the homophobes." Marella snorts a laugh.

In one big group, they all leap to the Atlantis entrance and enter the whirlpool one by one. As they start the walk to the matchmaker offices, everyone ignores the looks they get. A large, very rainbow group of elves is already waiting for Hayley's group when they arrive. "Ready?" Hayley asks, lifting her bisexual pride flag higher. Biana, holding the same flag, starts the chant of _yeah._

Marella nearly falls over in shock. What are the odds that both of the crushes she's had over her lifetime are also interested in girls? Low, probably. Though she isn't interested in Biana anymore, it's quite surprising.

Hayley starts the chant as Marella tries to recover. "We're here! We're queer! We..."

"Want equal rights!" Shoshana suggests.

The rest of the group joins in slowly. "We're here! We're queer! We want equal rights! We're here! We're queer! We want equal rights!"

The pure amount of gay energy in the group is overwhelming and beautiful. Everyone in that group is either like Marella or supports people like Marella with all their heart. When she first found out she liked girls, she thought she was alone. The only person like her. But she's not. There are so many people who exist as minorities in a cishet dominated world. She doesn't feel alone anymore. There are so many people like her. And they're fighting for their freedom to exist.

Even as nobility and matchmakers and maybe even a councillor come and try to break up the group, it doesn't work. They scream louder, wave their flags more aggressively. Shoshana and Hayley begin a kiss so passionate that Marella feels embarrassed observing something so personal. People hold hands with elves of their own gender. Even onlookers who Marella thinks are actually straight do so in solidarity. Linh pokes Marella's shoulder and Marella sees that Tam is hand in hand with Keefe. She takes Linh's hand softly. Linh squeezes.

"We're here! We're queer! We want equal rights!" The chant, screamed so loudly Marella starts to feel herself losing her voice, drowns out all of the hateful shouts from the crowd. "We're here! We're queer! We want equal rights!"

A man bearing a significant resemblance to Keefe Sencen- his father, maybe?- yells "Homosexuality is a disease!" Next to him, Keefe coughs exaggeratedly and replies "I have infected you with the gay!"

Marella laughs and continues to scream. Her throat hurts from the chanting. Her chest hurts from the knowledge that they have to scream for even the chance to be heard and listened to. "We're here! We're queer! We want equal rights!"

A hand on her shoulder forces her away from Linh. She whirls around, ready to start punching, but Linh grabs her arm again before she can. The two elves in front of her look a lot like Tam and Linh, respectively. "Linh? Tam? What are you doing?" says the man.

Linh takes a tiny step backwards. At the same time, Tam removes his hand from Keefe's and steps protectively in front of Linh. "Mother. Father. What a displeasure it is to see you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay pride parade!  
> Boo Song parents!


	15. xiv

Before one of Linh's parents can say anything in response, Tam wraps his arm around a shuddering Linh and half carries her away from their glaring parents, saying "And you won't be seeing us much longer. Bye!"

"Stop," Linh's dad commands calmly. Marella doubts it will have much effect on Tam, but to her surprise, he freezes. "I will not allow you to disgrace this family more than you have already. What are you _thinking_ , parading around with these fa-"

A girl in red whacks him on the head with a rainbow flag attached to a short pole. "No hate speech here! We love snacking on homophobes who say that word!" she shouts, before turning around and kissing a girl who was probably her girlfriend.

Tam and Linh's father shuffles his feet awkwardly before continuing. "These hooligans. We didn't raise you to be like this."

"No, you didn't raise us like this," Tam agrees quietly. "This is just the way we were born. You, Quan-"

"Don't address your father by his first name," snaps their mother.

"I'll call him what I want, Mai. Quan, you were born liking girls. You've always liked girls. Nothing would change that. It's the same for me. I like boys."

"I like girls because that is how the world should work!" said Quan. His face reddens with anger, eyes narrowing. With a start, Marella notices that they're exactly the same silvery blue color as Linh's eyes. The thought doesn't quite sit right with her; Linh's eyes are beautiful, and shouldn't be on the face of someone with such an ugly personality.

While thinking about Linh's eyes, the very girl stumbles into Marella. Despite being considerably smaller, she does her best to support her. Linh isn't very heavy, but Marella isn't very strong, and quite a bit of Linh's weight is on her. Those silvery blue eyes are unfocused, almost clouded over. Awkwardly, Marella gives what she hopes is a comforting squeeze.

Drawing her attention back to the scene unfolding in front of her, Tam says "The world _should_ work so that everyone is allowed to love who they love without fear."

"It shouldn't work like that! Can you imagine the chaos if everyone was allowed to do whatever they want? If you were allowed to love not just boys, but _Keefe Sencen_?"

"What?" sputters Tam, face flaming. "I- what- no- we're not-" He clears his throat as Keefe smirks and Marella muffles a snicker. The situation is serious, but the comedy of Tam's incessant denial will always be funny. Running a hand through his silver bangs, he maintains composure and says coolly "Sencen and I aren't dating, but even if we were, that wouldn't be any of your business. Now, since you decided to send your children off to Exillium like we meant nothing to you, how about you continue to ignore the fact that we're related to you and go about your business, staying out of the life we've cobbled together without you two in it."

When Mai smiles, it looks pained. "You don't mean nothing to us, Tam. In fact, the two of you are quite important to us. We sent you to Exillium to teach you a lesson, in the hopes that you would grow into the perfect children we knew you could become. Your father and I love the two of you very much, but, even as much as it pains us, when can only allow you to be in our lives when you're fixed."

"I don't need fixing," whispers Linh. Instead of looking angry, or even upset, she stares upwards, a smile on her face. Marella's first instinct is to be happy that she's happy, but she doesn't look happy at all. More... dazed. Calm, but like the calm before a storm.

"You-" starts Quan.

Tam cuts him off. "Shut up!" A note of panic laces his voice. Don't you guys recognize this? This is exactly how she got before she flooded Atlantis? The place, incidentally, that we are right now! Her control's gotten better, but it's nowhere near good enough."

Marella bites her lips and takes a step backwards. What she thinks that will achieve, she isn't quite sure. One can drown no matter where in the middle of the ocean they stand. She trusts Linh, she does, but she also knows how hard it is to control her ability. The problem is, while fire and water can both be very destructive, Linh summoning water can extinguish Marella's fire. The opposite has no such effect.

 _Her control is better now,_ she tries to tell herself. _She isn't going to flood Atlantis. She isn't going to flood Atlantis._ But even as she thinks the words, cracks start to appear in the force field holding the water at bay. The ocean around them starts to seep in, starts to run in small streams towards wherever the lowest elevated point is. No one notices at first, but slowly, the crowd stops chanting and the protesters stop shouting hate and the noise fades to murmurs and frantic whispers as people point at the spiderweb cracks across the glass bubble. Whispers raise to voices raise to screams, but no one _does_ anything, and the water spreading across the ocean floor goes from a few trickling streams to a steady presence soaking Marella's shoes.

Linh's serene smile remains on her face. She slowly brings her hands up before jerking them down, a wave crashing along to the floor. Like a bucket was placed above the frame of a door just opened (Marella is well familiar with that- _Thanks, Dex_ ), waters spills down into Linh's general vicinity. Which means Marella's general vicinity as well.

She shrieks from the cold as it splashes on her head, making her knees crumble with its force. Nearby, Keefe shrieks about his Hair, and Marella's own clings to her face. Quan and Mai looking soaked, like dogs with matted fur, make Marella smile despite herself. Tam's facial expression screams _I told you so_ as he tosses his bangs off of his forehead. The only person not wet is Linh. She doesn't seem to have noticed the flood around her. The only thing her silvery blue eyes focus on is something above her that no one else can see.

"We have to get her out of here," says Tam, his voice still laced with frantic nervousness, eyes wide.

Quan grabs Tam's shoulder. "We're not done with you."

Something small and shiny flies towards Marella. She fumbles to catch it and misses, cursing as it clatters on the ground. Keefe laughs at her coordination before kneeling down to hand the object to her. It's a leaping crystal. Marella looks back at Tam.

"Fine. I'll argue with my idiot parents more. Marella, can you take Linh back to our house?"

"Yeah, sure," says Marella, nodding. She doesn't want to leave the parade, that's true- even though the chants of _we're here, we're queer, we want equal rights_ have faded into the background while Quan and Mai come to act like morons, the gay energy reverberating through the air is fierce, and Marella is determined to fight as much as she can. But the excitement of the parade takes second place to Linh's well being. Plus, if Atlantis floods, they can't quite protest anymore.

She shuffles her feet awkwardly. "Um. Good luck with those annoyances?" she says, pointing at Quan and Mai. Tam's lips quirk up at the nickname.

"Thanks."

Shock rolls over Marella like the waves are going to if she doesn't leave soon. Tam is... thanking her? Trusting her? Not being a jerk to her? What is this madness? Deciding to leave before this strange new attitude towards her is replaced with the old one, she waves, takes Linh's hand, ignores the gay panic, and leaps away.

Soon after they reappear in the middle of the forest near Linh's house, she sits down on a tree stump and rubs her eyes. They're coming back into focus, less clouded over and more like that silvery blue color Marella loves so much. The look on Linh's face shifts from dazed to panicked.

"Was I about to flood Atlantis?" she yelps.

Marella sits beside her, grimacing. She holds her thumb and forefinger close together, trying to be gentle as she says "A little bit."

"You look _soaked._ "

"Oh yeah." In all honesty, Marella had nearly forgotten. She shakes her head vigorously, feeling her hair flap around as she tries to clear water droplets from it, before squeezing out whatever's left. "Most of Atlantis had probably less than an inch of water, though. You only really dumped a lot of the ocean on me, Tam, Keefe, and your parents."

Linh bites her lip. Marella looks away, not wanting to think too much about Linh's lips. _You gay disaster,_ she thinks. Linh's voice interrupts her thoughts, saying "Well, my parents deserved it, I guess, but the rest of you..."

"It's fine," Marella assures her. "It didn't hurt or anything. Just a little surprising." She wills her hand to catch on fire, but is still surprised when it does, and hovers it above her head. "Hopefully this will work like a hair dryer."

It gets a small smile out of Linh, at least. "Hopefully you don't burn your hair off. I rather like it."

In warning Marella not to burn her hair off, Linh almost does the exact opposite. Marella's hand flares with far bigger flames than the slow, controlled heat she had previously, and she barely rips her hand away in time. _She likes your hair, Marella. Don't make this into something it isn't. You can like someone's hair without being into them. Don't girls compliment each others' hair all the time in a platonic way?_ She breathes slowly until her hand returns to normal.

"Oh! Sorry, did I break your concentration or something?"

"Maybe," shrugs Marella, hoping she seems like she's telling the truth. "I'm not really sure what set my hand off. I'm pretty new to being a pyrokinetic, so my control is still super lousy."

"At least you've never flooded Atlantis," Linh mutters, running a hand through her own gorgeous hair. If Marella were to compliment that, it would certainly _not_ be platonic.

"Need I remind you, I almost burned down a Council building?" she replies. It's funny how that's almost funny to her now, instead of the traumatizing experience it was a few months ago. She's strangely proud of that fact, almost, but it's probably helped by the councillors being garbage cans. Mostly- Oralie and Kenric are okay, and Bronte seems grumpy but not necessarily a terrible person.

Linh blinks. "Wow. I'd forgotten." She almost smiles, but forces it down. Possibly because she's not as willing to be sadistic about the council.

"Anyway," says Marella, resuming 'blow drying' her hair. "Do you, um, want to talk about... what happened, um, back in Atlantis?" She cringes at her own awkwardness. Talking about stuff is not her strong suit, when it comes to the heavier stuff. When Linh pauses, she stumbles over her own words to apologize. "Sorry, you don't have to if you don't want to, sorry if it seemed like I was overstepping, it's fine if you don't feel like talking about-"

Thankfully, Linh quietly interrupts that train wreck. "No, I want to."

"Are you sure? Because again, you don't have to-"

"Stop trying to talk me out of it, Mare," says Linh, the hint of a laugh in her voice, and Marella stops arguing, if only because she sounded so lovely that taking a second to appreciate Linh's voice is necessary.

After a long pause, she clears her throat. "Sorry. Go ahead."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NO ONE LIKES QUAN OR MAI  
> (But even they ship Kam lmao)


	16. xv

For a while, Linh is silent, long enough to make Marella think she's changed her mind. Just when Marella is about to apologize (again), Linh speaks up. "So, the official story is that my parents banished me because my abilities were too powerful and I flooded Atlantis, and that probably didn't help, but that isn't why they kicked me out. The last time I flooded Atlantis, it was because they told me I was going to be kicked out after I came out to them."

What is someone supposed to say in these situations? Marella doesn't know, so she just nods. Linh doesn't seem to notice, though- it's almost like she's lost in her own world, talking to herself instead of to Marella.

"Um, so today, it sort of just reminded me of that, and I started flashing back to when they rejected me like that, so I... almost flooded Atlantis again. Yeah."

"If it's any consolation, I'm sure Tam is destroying your parents with his saltiness, and Keefe may or may not be siccing gulons on them." Marella laughs at the thought. So does Linh, so hopefully it was the right thing to say.

Linh's amusement fades more quickly, though. "So, um, the thing is, my parents didn't kick me out because I told them I liked girls." Marella's heart skips a beat at the last three words, even though _I like girls_ doesn't equate to _I like this specific female disaster of an elf named Marella._ She shakes her head to clear the thought as Linh continues. "I didn't even know I liked girls back then. My parents kicked me out because I told them I was a girl."

Her silvery blue eyes focus on the ground, not meeting Marella's as she connects the dots. It probably took her too long, but when realization dawns, she's proud to say she has no idea what to say. "Oh. I'm... I'm glad you trusted me enough to tell me. Really." And sure enough, Marella's neurons are throwing a party of _She trusts us! She trusts us! She trusts us a lot and maybe she likes us!_

Linh's eyes flick up to Marella before dropping again, the hint of a smile on her face. "It helped that I already knew you supported trans people, because of the gay revolution."

"Yeah," replies Marella. It isn't the same, but she remembers how terrified she was of coming out before Linh joined her in a super accepting gang of other LGBTQ+ people. "But even if I wasn't part of the gay revolution, I would support you. You're a girl, and it's literally none of my business what your chromosomes are."

Linh smiles, finally making eye contact. She leans her head on Marella's shoulder. "Great."

For a while, they stay that way. If Marella could freeze time right then, she would be happy.

But nope, time doesn't work that way, and a loud laugh interrupts the peace. Loud crunching of leaves underfoot draws closer and closer to them, until Keefe's voice rings through the air. "Aww!" he says. "You two look so cute!"

Linh lifts her head off Marella's shoulder, struggling to untangle the hairs that somehow got entwined. "What? She's my _friend_."

Marella tries not to let the words sting. They do anyway.

Keefe sighs and shakes his head, crunching more leaves as he walks past them. "Useless lesbians," he mutters.

"Look, if we're talking about useless gays, does that make you the pot or the kettle?" fires Marella.

Linh nods. "Honestly. Make a move already."

"I keep _trying,_ " sighs Keefe, running a hand through his hair. "Tam-"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Tam snaps quickly. Far too quickly, a blush on his face. Marella has to suppress an eye roll- this is moving past denial and into delusion. If everyone in the world can see it, why does he keep pretending? There's no way he genuinely doesn't know he likes Keefe. And Keefe pretty clearly likes him as well. So why does Tam just keep denying himself this?

Keefe moves past the tree stump Marella and Linh sit on to brush his hand against Tam's softly. Marella exchanges an awkward glance with Linh. She doesn't want to intrude on this personal moment, but at the same time, really wants to grab the popcorn and absorb every detail. Tam and Keefe don't seem to even remember she and Linh are there as they stare into each other's eyes. She has the strangest urge to lock them in a closet until they kiss.

"Tam," breathes Keefe, and the knowledge that this is probably the first time Keefe has said Tam's actual name instead of _Bangs Boy_ isn't lost on Marella. Nor, judging by Tam's fleeting smile quickly forced into a scowl, was it lost on Tam. "Being an Empath is sometimes fun, but sometimes it's a curse instead of a blessing. Like when I can feel the person I'm interested in likes be back, but also despises me, and I can't tell which is stronger."

Voice hollow, Tam says "I don't hate you." Keefe's eyes widen. Marella suppresses a squeal. Linh isn't as successful in concealing her excitement. "Well, I kind of do," he corrects, and Keefe's face falls. "How could I not? Everything seems so _easy_ for you, from coping with being banished to terrible parents to accepting that you like boys. And you can have any elf you want, but you're choosing _me_ , and the only explanations for that I can think of are you think it'll be amusing to play with me, or I'm a mystery you want to solve. Hating you for wanting to play with me is obvious-"

"That's not my intention," Keefe replies. "I'm not the person who plays with people like that, despite what you may believe. I'm an Empath, I know peoples' feelings aren't something to be taken lightly. My intention isn't to use you as amusement or for some sort of bragging right. I think I've made my intentions pretty clear. I want to date you because I _like_ you, Bangs B- _Tam_."

Despite Keefe's speech making both girls _aww_ , Tam plows ahead like he couldn't hear. "Trying to sort through my feelings about you finding my mystery intriguing is a little more complicated. But once you solve me, Sencen, and you realize how dark and broken and _shady_ I am, there's no way you'll stay. None. So it's easier to hate you now, before I fall too deep in love and let myself get hurt."

"I'm not going to hurt you."

"You can't promise that."

Keefe runs a hand through his hair. "It isn't easy for me either. I just pretend it is. But maybe, if you let me get closer to you, I could... stop pretending. And then you'll realize you're not any more screwed up than I am. And maybe you'll learn to trust me."

"I don't want to trust you," says Tam, his silvery blue eyes focused on the ground. Marella notices they're the exact same color as Linh's, and far less darkened then they typically are. Less closed off, emotionless. "I don't want to trust you, but I think I do. And that's why I'm terrified of you too, Keefe, because you can slip through my walls despite all my best efforts."

"You can't live your life closed off from emotions because you're afraid," Keefe replies. "Trust the Empath."

"See, that's exactly what I'm trying not to do." Tam clears his throat. "Can we stop talking about this?"

Linh speaks for the first time since Tam and Keefe's rather intense discussion began. "Yeah, stop talking and start kissing."

"Why are you two so invested in our relationship?"

"Because you guys are _cute_!"

"We're really not," mumbles Tam. He tugs his dyed bangs in front of his eyes and starts speed walking. Keefe does a weird sort of jog to keep up, although he somehow refrains from saying anything. Once they're out of earshot, Linh turns to Marella and whispers "I wasn't the only one mentally screaming for them to kiss, right?"

"Definitely not," assures Marella. She tries not to blush at the word kiss. Linh wasn't talking about kissing Marella. Like, she really, really wasn't. And yet... heat rises to her cheeks anyway. She sighs. _You lesbian disaster._

She's not one hundred percent sure how her brain makes the connection, but brains are weird, and Marella's thought drifts to the pride parade. She wonders if it's still going on. "Hey, Linh?" she says.

"Yeah?"

"If the gay revolution protest is still going on, how would you feel about going back?" She bites her lip.

"I don't know..." Linh says hesitantly. "My parents would probably be gone by now, right?"

"Probably, yeah," agrees Marella. "Now that you and Tam left."

Linh's eyes turn skyward. "Maybe we could put some sort of system in place? Like, if I feel myself getting panicky and possibly about to flood stuff ish, we could work out some sort of signal and you could leap me back here? My concentration levels get kind of iffy when I'm more focused on water, so it wouldn't be a good idea to leap myself, but..."

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Marella pauses. "Same good if I almost set something on fire for whatever reason?"

"Unless it's a homophobe, I will get you out of there."

" _Unless it's a homophobe_ ," she repeats, half laughing, half cackling. "Wow, Linh, I didn't know you had that sort of dark humor streak in you."

Linh blushes. "Sorry. I try not to wish ill on anyone, but..."

"No, no, I like it." Marella blushes too, but for an entirely different reason- vengeful Linh is kind of exciting and, dare she say it, _super freaking hot._ "Just only wish ill on the people who deserve it."

A smile splits Linh's face, not helping Marella stop staring at her. "In that case, you can set the transphobes on fire too."

"Naturally, naturally." Marella laughs again. "I'll check if the parade is still going on." Some digging around in her pocket reveals her imparter to be there. "Show me... uh, Eve." The name comes randomly from her mental list of gay revolution buddies.

Eve's face, their turquoise hair contrasting against their dark skin, appears on the imparter. "Hi! Um... don't tell me... Mare? Is that your name?"

"It's Marella," she correct automatically. "No nicknames."

Linh tilts her head to the side. "Really? I didn't know that, sorry. I know I call you Mare from time to time. Sorry, if I'd known you didn't like nicknames..."

"With you it's okay," says Marella, the words spilling out before her brain can permit them. They're right, though. Linh calling her Mare doesn't seem quite as terrible as it does with everyone else. Linh is an exception. She blushes, not quite knowing why. Well, the reason is probably because Linh being an exception to the nickname rule comes from Marella's massive crush.

"So, anyway, I saw you two leaving the protest a while ago. Congratulations! I guess you two kissed, or whatever you alloromantic weirdos do... I don't need details!" The panicked look on Eve's face is a little funny, but Marella and Linh both rush to assure her that nothing like that happened, one with a lot more disappointment weighing the words down than the other probably has.

"Oh. Anyway, why're you calling?"

"We were wondering if the parade was still going on- is it?"

Eve nods. Marella and Linh turn to each other, smiling. "Great!"

"Well, I left about five minutes ago when the gay revolution was still going strong, so I'd assume," amends Eve.

"Good enough!" Marella declares. "Thanks for your help!"

"No problem." Eve waves goodbye as they hang up.

"Ready for the pride parade, part two?" asks Marella. Linh nods, holding out a crystal. She holds her hand as they leap to the entrance to Atlantis, trying not to think about the fact that they're holding hands, and failing miserably. She tries not to be disappointed when Linh lets go, and fails at that too. Once the two girls stand above the whirlpool, Linh pauses. "You don't have to do this," says Marella at the scared look on Linh's face. "I'm okay with going back to your place and locking Tam and Keefe in a room until they kiss."

Shaking her head, she says "No. Well, that does sound fun, and we can totally do that when we get back. But I'm okay with going back to Atlantis. Just a little nervous."

"You can hold my hand, if you want," says Marella, the boldness of the offer coming from a place she didn't quite know existed. To her surprise, Linh silently accepts the offer and interlaces their fingers together. Giddily, Marella does an almost sort of bounce before jumping into the whirlpool.

They reappear in the midst of the parade, sandwiched between people and pride flags. A giant collection hover above the group, probably those left behind by people who've already left, held telekinetically by someone or other. Marella jumps up and attempts to grab a lesbian flag, but fails miserably.

Linh gives a sympathetic smile and reaches for the one Marella wanted before taking a trans flag for herself. She squeezes Marella's hand tighter.

"These people don't know you, if that helps," Marella offers.

"Yeah. Coming out to strangers is easier."

"Agreed. When I was at the first meeting at Shoshana's, I-"

A shout interrupts their conversation. "Girls can't kiss girls!" Is Linh cutting off circulation in Marella's hand? Probably. Does Marella care? Almost certainly not.

"You heard him, gays!" yells Hayley, who somehow managed to find a megaphone and is speaking into it. At first, Marella thinks she said _guys,_ but quickly realizes her error. "It's physically impossible for female elves to kiss other female elves. Any time one tries, she finds an invisible barrier preventing their lips from touching. Girls cannot kiss girls. Clearly, a hetero man knows better than girls who have tried to kiss girls. Since he's clearly right, how about we reaffirm his claim? If you're a girl who wants to kiss a girl, go ahead and try to kiss her! You'll find it impossible, you know."

Without waiting for Hayley to take the megaphone away from her mouth, Shoshana leans in. "Alright, Hayley and I are going to test it!" she calls. Their mouths can't be more than an inch apart when she says the words, and Hayley soon lets the megaphone dropping, revealing that their lips are indeed pressed together.

Around Marella, other girls try the same and get similar results. Boys and straight/single/aro girls cheer them on. Marella's eyes stop drifting around the crowd, turning back to Linh's. Silvery blue. Like the ocean on a rainy day. Beautiful.

It's almost like an invisible force overtakes her, though it's not necessarily one Marella would fight. Still, she feels more like an onlooker than a participant as her hand reaches up to tuck a strand of jet black hair behind Linh's ear, lingering on her cool skin. The same hand cups her cheek. Cursing her height, Marella stands as high on her tiptoes as she can and tilts her head back.

Her lips are so close to Linh's. An inch. Half an inch. Their noses touch. She can feel Linh's minty breath on her cheeks. She lets her eyelids drop, feels their faces continue to draw closer, closer, closer...

"Marella?" says Linh. "What are you doing?" Before Marella can speak, panic flashing through every fiber of her body, understanding dawns on Linh's face. "You- you like me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What are you guys's predictions? Let me know so I can laugh at how absolutely wrong you are. :)


	17. xvi

As any reasonable person would, by which Marella means _not at all reasonable_ , she doesn't wait for Linh to continue, doesn't offer a stuttered explanation, doesn't say a word. She just bolts down the Atlantis roads, half paying attention to the signs on buildings. When she finds an ice cream store, she knows it was fate that she discovered it.

Tears drip onto her face. She's screwed it all up with Linh, she knows. How could she have ever been _stupid_ enough to try kissing Linh? Linh obviously doesn't feel the same. When Marella opened her eyes and saw Linh's face, her expression hadn't been aglow with excitement or the sweet knowledge that her crush feels the same. It had just been shock. Maybe even repulsion- Marella isn't great at reading faces.

What she wouldn't give to be an Empath like Keefe, to know once and for all what Linh feels.

Then again, if she could have that solid proof... would she want to risk knowing for sure that Linh hates her now? And if she was an Empath, than she wouldn't have been banished in the first place. Which sounds like a good thing, she knows, but if she'd never gone to Exillium, she never would have met Linh.

A blessing in disguise?

However many months ago it was when Marella used to just go to Foxfire as a normal, albeit unpopular, level one elf, she would have given anything to be an Empath. To have the ability to interpret her mother's unstable moods, maybe even help her. Have a better, easier home life.

Why is Marella thinking about abilities? It's not like she can change it, anyway. For better or worse, she's a Pyrokinetic, and that minor detail has set her whole life into motion like a set of dominoes. And the dominoes are toppling, falling, falling, falling. Marella doesn't know which way they're going to fall, where this is going to go...

Because now, Linh knows. Marella tried to kiss her, and now she knows Marella likes her.

Friendships aren't good at surviving that crushing awkwardness of _knowing_ one party likes the other and the other doesn't return their feelings. That horrible state of admiring Linh from afar while keeping their interactions totally platonic and feelings hidden, that's survivable. But not having Linh in her life at all... now that she knows the other girl, has gotten used to having her as a constant in her crazy life, has just grown to enjoy the presence of a genuinely good person... how will Marella lose her?

Knowing Linh, she'll try to keep their friendship intact. But if it's just too much crushing awkwardness to stand, if they've forgotten how to talk for hours without thinking, if they've forgotten how to brighten the other's mood with no more than a smile... then maybe, it would just hurt less to walk away?

It would hurt less, but it would still hurt. So, so much.

There is a storm of pain ahead of Marella, able to be overshadowed only by the mouthwatering taste of mallowmelt flavored ice cream. The elf behind the counter gives her a weird care, but she doesn't care, can't care. She tries to swipe the tears away, but they keep coming, dripping down her face with the knowledge that she's just ruined _everything_ , one of the only good things that came after her world fell to pieces as she was banished to Exillium, that she's lost that small flicker of happiness.

She's lost _Linh._

Marella manages to order a large ice cream through sobs before sinking into one of the small tables, unsure whether her legs would support her any longer. Probably not. She buries her head in her hands and cries as the world around continues on. Her heart splinters.

She thought she loved Biana, _Princess Prettypants_ , before, when she still attended Foxfire and had no idea what the world was like beyond her bubble. She thought she loved the other girl's dazzling eyes and the confidence she carried herself with, the way Biana's boldness burned and blazed. She thought she loved Biana, and she thought her world had fallen apart when she realized how unlikely it was that Biana liked girls, how impossible it was that she would like _Marella._

(Biana actually does like girls, realizes the thought in the back of her mind that remembers the other girl at Hayley's protest, but the thought goes nearly unnoticed amidst the hurricane of heartbreak in her head.)

Marella thought she loved Princess Prettypants because she saw the fire in Biana, and she thought that sort of fire in a person was the elf she needed. But an older, wiser Marella knows how wrong that was. Because Linh is like water. Strong when necessary, but usually sweet, calm, helping people instead of harming them. Just the kind of person she needed to balance out her own fire. Not just someone she admired, but someone who made her a better person, someone who made her feel good.

What she feels for Linh is a million times stronger than what she felt for Princess Prettypants. Linh is a million times more right for Marella than Princess Prettypants. And the heartbreak Marella feels over Linh is a million times stronger than the prickle of pain Princess Prettypants poked at her heart.

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.

A small tapping on Marella's shoulder diverts her attention from her own pain. She looks up.

"Linh," she says, voice cracking, cracking, cracking, shattering into a million pieces.

"Marella." Linh keeps her face neutral, making it impossible for Marella to discern any emotion, to guess what thoughts are going through her head. She hands Marella her ice cream without comment. "We didn't really get the chance to talk..."

Her silvery blue eyes meet Marella's. Was it really just a few minutes ago that she waxed poetic on those eyes, describing them as the color of the ocean on a rainy day? That recent?

Those eyes look stormy now.

Marella doesn't want to talk to Linh, hear the words solidifying this rejection. She just dejectedly licks the ice cream cone, picks up the crystal, and glitters away. The last thing she sees is Linh's eyes focused on the spot she left.

Marella reappears on her cave, running inside and dramatically flopping on the bed as she finishes her ice cream. Once it's gone, she doesn't know what to do with herself. She just wants to lie down, staring into space, going numb. Or maybe she wants to eat even more ice cream. Watch movies. Whatever.

Desires float through her head, coming and going as no more than fleeting thought, but finally, one seems like something she actually wants.

She wants her best friend.

With a groan, Marella rolls over and grabs her imparter. "Show me Dex," she mumbles.

Dex's grinning face appears. "I heard about the gay revolution parade- you were part of that, right?" His dimples gleam.

In a monotone, she says "Yeah."

"You don't look happy. Did it not go well?"

"It went fine."

"You're a terrible liar."

Marella takes a deep inhale. Then, in one breath, she blurts "Linh and I had a sort of kind of moment that made me think she might like me but then Tam and Keefe came and confessed their undying love for each other before Tam chickened out and Linh and I decided to go back to the parade, one of the anti-queer elves said something about how girls can't kiss girls and Hayley mocked him, saying all girls who want to kiss a girl should try and see if it was a physical impossibility and without thinking I tried to kiss Linh, that didn't go well, now she knows I like her and probably hates me."

Dex blinks. "Wow."

"Yeah," says Marella with a sigh.

"You almost kissed Linh?"

"First of all, you choose to focus on _that_? Second, yes."

"What was it like?"

"Amazing. Our lips were so close, and I could feel her breath on my cheeks, and it was just... incredible." Marella sighs again. "It's everything that came after it that sucks."

"Do you want to talk more about it?"

"I don't even want to think about it."

"Okay. Um... tell me more about Keefe and Tam!"

Marella forces a smile and explains the whole conversation they had, from their words to their facial expressions to her own fangirling. Dex nods along, agreeing "I ship it" whenever the story calls. Eventually, their conversation shifts to Dex and his life, so he tells her about the triplets and Foxfire and the upcoming finals. Marella isn't sure how long they've been talking, but Dex is called to dinner as they're in a vicious game of virtual tic-tac-toe.

"This isn't over," Dex warns as he yells for a couple more minutes. "When we talk next, I will destroy you in an epic victory."

Marella snorts. "You can try." She cracks her knuckles in an attempt to seem more threatening. Dex laughs, which means her goal probably wasn't achieved.

"It was nice talking to you."

"You too." She smiles and waves. "See you soon!"

"Bye!" The call ends with a click.

Marella sighs and settles back into her bed. Talking to Dex did help. Everything about their friendship was easy, a welcome distraction from all the turmoil elsewhere. But now that Dex's voice and bad jokes aren't around to distract her, her mind settles back into a tornado of thoughts about Linh swirling around, getting more and more desperate, deeper and deeper into a spiral of despair.

Eventually, she falls into an uneasy sleep. When the sun comes up and she wakes up again, it's time for another _looong_ day at Exillium. As she stretches and rubs the sleep from her eyes, Marella realizes she was crying in her unconscious state. Her eyes must look red and puffy, but whatever. She'll be wearing a mask, anyway.

For what's probably the first time in her entire time at Exillium, Marella follows the rules. No uncovering her face or making eye contact with anyone. No falling in love, at least no deeper than she is already. Just become another robot, another drone, another elf in the crowd who's lost her individualism. She just exists, going through the motions, conforming. An agonizing week passes by in this state; sleepwalking through days, talking to Dex in the evenings, and sleeping restlessly at night.

Hayley approaches her after Exillium on Friday. At least, Marella thinks it's Friday. She hasn't really been keeping track.

"We have a meeting today," Hayley says, getting right to the point. "Want to come?"

Marella sighs. "Why wouldn't I?" she asks, but she's already exhausted by the prospect of interacting with anyone other than Dex.

Without missing a beat, Hayley matter-of-factly says "Because you're basically a zombie nowadays and you haven't talked to any of us for the last week, even as we've been celebrating how well our protest went a few days ago."

"Why is it concerning that I haven't talked to anyone? Those are the rules."

"Yeah, and since when have you followed those?" asks Hayley, eyebrow raised. Marella sighs again, unable to argue. "What's up with you?"

"I tried to kiss Linh," Marella blurts.

Hayley's eyes widen. "Wow. Congratulations. But based on your level of happiness lately, I take it things didn't go the way you expected?"

"I don't even know what I expected." A dry, humorless laugh escapes Marella. Maybe it's a sob. "I had no idea what I _thought_ would happen, why I ever _thought_ it would have a positive consequence. Linh just seems baffled as to why I would do that too, and she probably hates me now, so that's great-"

Cutting her off, Hayley says "Seems? Probably? Do you, like, not know for sure how she feels about you kissing her?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Have you talked to her?"

"Actually, I just ran, but-"

"Did she actually display any negative emotions?"

"No, just surprise, but-"

"Marella."

"Yeah?"

"I mean this in the nicest way possible, but you, Marella, are a _moron._ "

"Thanks," she deadpans. "I feel much better now."

Hayley shrugs, a lopsided smile on her lips. "It's the truth. Marella, you don't know how she feels. Try figuring that out before you jump to conclusions and cut everyone out of your life."

"I'm almost certain that-"

"Almost, but not completely." Hayley rubs her temples, muttering something like _You useless gay._ "Look, if you already _know_ she'll react with disgust and hatred, then why are you avoiding having it solidified? If you already know the answer, why don't you want it proven?" Marella stays silent. "It's because somewhere, a part of you hopes she enjoyed that kiss, or that she likes that you kissed her, or that she wants to kiss you back. And you're afraid of having that hope squashed. But Marella?"

"What?" It comes out somewhat more harshly than she meant- it unsettles her that Hayley practically read her thoughts- but she doesn't seem to mind.

"Maybe your hopes will be confirmed instead of your fears." The lopsided smile returns as she hands Marella the leaping crystal for the meeting and walks in Eris's direction. After a pause, she stops walking, turns around, and calls "Talk to her, Marella."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well...
> 
> Hayley's right: Marella is a moron. A useless lesbian. A gay disaster. A queer fool. A homosexual trainwreck. A sapphic idiot.
> 
> Someone smarter than me- I think that's enough-
> 
> Me- A WLW IMBECILE!
> 
> Comment if you're a moron, useless lesbian, gay disaster, queer fool, homosexual trainwreck, sapphic idiot, and/or wlw imbecile.


	18. xvii

The mere thought of talking to Linh makes Marella want to scream and flee to the Forbidden Cities, change her name, and never be seen again. It makes every molecule of her body start hyperventilating and offering excuses for why she really shouldn't do it, or why she should do this later. It makes Marella duck her head under the covers and wish she could just sleep through this conversation. In short, it terrifies her.

"Hayley's right, you know," says Dex unhelpfully. Marella sticks her tongue out at him. She came to him for advice, but so far, all he's given her is a lot of groaning and head shaking, as well as cheesy pickup lines he told her to use.

"We're no longer friends," Marella deadpans.

Dex rolls his periwinkle eyes. "Seriously, though. I think she likes you. Just give it a try- what's the worst that can happen?"

"She could reject me." Goosebumps prick her skin at the thought. She shiveres, despite the warmth in the air. "She could laugh at me. Or maybe she would say she doesn't want to be friends with me anymore."

"Aren't you already not friends, though?" says Dex. Marella's eyes flick to the ground. He has a point there, though the words being spoken and its sound waves reverberating through the air weigh her down with melancholy.

She misses Linh, simply. It hasn't been all that long, but the Hydrokinetic has just become such a constant, a comforting presence, someone Marella can rely on. The avoidance was her choice- though at times, it seemed like she was controlled by her own stupidity- but it still hurts. A lot.

"Fine!" she exclaims, fighting the urge to throw the imparter across the room with every ounce of force she can muster. Or maybe telekinesis, which had improved greatly, thanks to Exillium. Or maybe both. "Fine, Dex, I'll talk to her. Happy?"

"Very," he replies, his dimples showing to prove it.

Marella huffs. "But what am I supposed to say?"

"Don't ask me," says Dex, eyes widening and eyebrows raising as he shrugs. Annoyance flares through Marella.

"I'm asking you."

"Well, I have no idea."

"How about this: Oh, Linh Whatever Her Middle Name Is Song, you have utterly ensnared my heart. With your _silvery blue eyes_ -" His voice rose mockingly on those three words, and Marella blushed. She did like those silvery blue eyes, but really wished she hadn't confided in Dex about it, as he'd done nothing more than tease her mercilessly. " _That look like the ocean on a rainy day._ Everything about you is so wonderful, from the way you toss your hair back so its dyed tips sweep across your bare shoulders when you laugh, to the way your smile brightens the world-"

That's it. Marella is never telling Dex anything she likes about Linh ever again.

"-And, before I become more of a disaster lesbian, I will conclude by telling you that you are the most wonderful girl I could have ever nearly set on fire. Be my wife."

"I'm asking her out, not proposing to her!" squawked Marella. She usually wished her calls with Dex were in person instead of over imparter, since real life communication was always more meaningful or whatever, but she especially wanted him in person now, so she could throw a pillow at him, let its feathers rain down on him along with her fury.

"Right, but you might want to practice for-"

"I will not hesitate to light your entire alchemy office on fire."

"First of all, it's got no less than seven fire extinguishers based on the sheer number of times I light it aflame without your help. Second, you have no access to it. Third of all, there actually is no third thing, it just really doesn't sound like much of a list without it."

Marella rolls her eyes. "Can you please be serious about this, Dex? I really don't want to mess this up." She hopes her desperation properly conveys through the imparter, forehead creasing and jaw clenched. "Please?"

Dex sighs. "Yeah, okay. I'm sorry, Mare."

"Marella," she corrects automatically."

"You let _Linh_ call you a nickname! Am I not more special than she is?"

"I don't feel an intense desire to strangle Linh on a daily basis, so that's a point in her favor," says Marella.

"I would argue, but you have a point there. I'm very aggravating."

"Indeed you are. So, Mr. Aggravating, what do you propose?" Before Dex can even make the joke, she quickly swoops in to correct herself. "What do you _suggest_?"

"Be honest?" answers Dex, phrasing it like a question. "And be yourself, I guess. If she likes you, she likes the disaster you are, so make no effort to conceal said disaster. Well, make some effort. But don't completely change yourself for her. Um... I think you're supposed to compliment her? And maybe get her flowers. Or chocolates."

"Mmm. Chocolates are probably better. They taste good. What do flowers do? They just look nice, I guess."

"Alright, buy her chocolates. Don't lace the chocolates with a romance elixir."

"Wow, you've figured out my master plan," Marella deadpans. "Whatever will I do now."

"Probably steal it from Slurps and Burps, banana in hand in case anyone tries to stop you." He grins, looking immensely pleased with himself, and Marella shakes her head.

"You're never going to let that go, are you?"

"Nope, never."

"May you be cursed with the power of a thousand bananas." Marella pauses, nervously twirling her hair. "Should I write something out? Like a speech or something as I list everything I like about her and copy some of your borderline poetic stuff?"

With a fake gasp, Dex claps a hand to his heart. "No plagiarizing!"

"You can't copyright spoken words," Marella shrugs. "Besides, if they try to arrest me, I'll have my trusty banana."

He laughs. "You're not going to let the banana thing go either, you hypocrite."

"After a few seconds of deep thinking, I've concluded that it was absolutely fantastic and quite possibly my greatest achievement in my short time as an elf," concedes Marella, a smile rising to her face at the memory.

"Anyway, back to your question, I don't think you should write something out. Knowing you, you'd forget it anyway."

"I would be offended, but you're probably right."

"Just... say all the things you'd write in your diary."

"I don't write about Linh in a diary!" protests Marella. Even though she's telling the truth, Dex cackles.

"Anyway, I have to go, Dad's calling me. Good luck. You've got this. And, in the unlikely event it doesn't turn out well, I'll leap over there with ice cream and cheesy human movies. I don't know what else to do for heartbreak, but ice cream is foolproof. Again, good luck!"

"Thanks," Marella mumbles, hoping Dex knows she's not just thanking him for the luck. The imparter clicks with Dex hanging up, and Marella flops back on her bed, staring at the top of her cave. "I'll need the luck," she says, to no one in particular.

Soon after she buries her head under her covers and wishes for a different, braver version of herself to go do all the work for her, Marella's imparter buzzes again. She groans, rolling over, and picks it up. It's Bella, from the Gay Revolution Society. A grin is on her face, chocolate brown hair windswept. "Marella!" she exclaims, voice probably a few decibels louder than necessary. "Come on over to Shoshana's basement! Emergency Gay Revolution meeting! Hurry! Okay, I've gotta go call your girlfriend, see you soon!" She hangs up before Marella can correct her, not that she would necessarily want to.

It takes a moment to register- Linh is going to be there. In the same basement. Nearby. Talking to her will likely be inevitable. She knew it was going to happen anyway, but why _now_? Why so soon? Marella wanted to procrastinate, gosh darn it!

With another groan, Marella swings her legs over and stands up, stretching out. Does she go extra slowly just to delay going to see Linh? It's possible, but she'd never admit it. Marella goes and examines herself in the small mirror she brought over from Linh's. With permission, of course. Her hair is a mess, and her cheeks seem permanently tinged red from all the times Dex's teasing made her blush. And of course, her clothes are a disaster- an oversize, wrinkled flannel over sweatpants. She sighs, and procrastination may or may not be a motive again, but she decides she can't go ask Linh out, not while looking so horrible.

Desperately, she combs her fingers through her nest of blonde hair, hoping against hope it looks presentable, and flips through her entire small wardrobe at least three times before settling on her nicest pair of jeans and a red flannel shirt. Of course it's flannel, she doesn't even have anything else, and anyway, it gives her confidence. It makes her feel like a cool lesbian rather than the disaster she is. Not that a shirt can actually take away her disastrous nature.

She even wears jewelry to the Gay Revolution meeting; a knotted bracelet made from the colors of the lesbian flag. She wouldn't have the patience to make it, but apparently Linh did, and even gifted it to Marella.

When she examines herself in the mirror for much longer than necessary, not even really looking at how she looks anymore, just trying to stall, she decides she can procrastinate no longer. With a heavy sigh and clammy hands, she leaps over to Shoshana's house.

Mirasol skips up to the house at the same time she does, giving a cheerful wave. "Hey, Marella! How's it going?"

"Fantastic," mutters Marella. _Oh, this is a bad idea, a terrible idea, why am I listening to Dex? Who in their right mind listens to Dex's advice?_

"You sound very sarcastic," Mirasol notes observantly. "What's up?"

Nervously, Marella tugs at her hair. She doesn't know why, but she answers, saying "I'm going to tell Linh that I like her, and I'm absolutely terrified."

"Wait, you guys weren't official already?" Mirasol looks genuinely confused, her expression saying quite plainly _my life is a lie_ when Marella shakes her head. "Oh. Honestly, I thought you were. Anyway, you guys are going to be super cute together. Good luck!"

"Thanks," says Marella, her mind going from the absolute anarchy of total panic to just a strong sense of terror. It's remarkable, how comforting a few kind words can be. Hoping to change the subject, to get this impending doom off her mind, she says "Do you have any idea why we've been called to this emergency meeting?"

"Not a clue," Mirasol replies cheerfully. "I can't decide if it's something super serious or a complete joke. Knowing Hayley, it's going to be one of the two extremes, but yeah. No idea which."

Marella bites her lip. "Hopefully the second one." She really doesn't want to deal with two crises right now. Trying to not completely freak out over her upcoming _talk_ with Linh is hard enough.

"I hope so." Holding the door open, Mirasol shrugs. "I guess we'll see." She follows Marella down the stairs, into the warm basement she's become so comfortingly familiar with over her time with the Gay Revolutionaries. The buzz of chatter meets her ears, smiles on everyone's face. Marella relaxes slightly, sensing good news.

And then, she catches sight of Linh, looking beautiful as ever. Her head is tilted back with laughter, a wide smile across her face as Keefe talks, his words indecipherable. A twinge of jealousy pangs through Marella's gut. She knows Linh is just as much a fangirl over the Keefe and Tam ship as she is, and therefore it's unlikely Linh harbors any feelings for Keefe, but she didn't specify her exact attraction, so it's definitely possible Linh likes boys too, and by male standards, Keefe is pretty great.

Marella takes a shaky breath. She'll know soon, one way or the other. If Linh rejects her, she rejects her, and Marella will have to be happy for whoever's lucky enough to earn Linh's affections. And if Linh likes her back...

She doesn't even finish that thought, clamping down on the spark of hope. And the spark of fire. In her nervousness, her hands have begun to smoke. She stuffs them in her pocket, head whipping around as she hopes no one notices. After another shaky breath, she takes a step in Linh's directions. Her legs feel weighed down, like she's wading through mollasses instead of walking across Shoshana's carpeted floor.

Before she approaches Linh, however, Hayley speaks, drawing all eyes to her. "Hi, everyone, thanks for coming on such short notice!" Everyone falls silent as heads turn. "I have good news and slightly terrifying news. Plot twist, they're the same thing! So, it's unclear how exactly it happened, but our favorite Keefe Sencen has managed to file a complaint in the name of his prestigious father who the council wouldn't dare anger, stating that when he comes of age, he wants the right to have both male and female names on his match lists. The same complaint Shoshana and I made, really, but in Lord Cassius's name."

"No need to thank me," Keefe interrupts. "It was easy, really. Just go home, pretend like I was going to repent from my delinquint ways, get enough fizzleberry wine in his system, break into his office, and forge his signature. Quite simple."

"Um, yes," says Hayley. "Great job. Anyway, the tribunal is in half an hour." Above the panicked muttering, she adds "Keefe is speaking, but he's allowed to get anyone he wants, which will likely include some of us. As the leader, I'm going, and as my emotional support more eloquent girlfriend, Shoshana will too. And if anyone else wants to say something, they're welcome to. We don't need to sign up now- just let Keefe or me know during the tribunal. Honestly, my goal is to annoy the council until the concede, if only to make us shut up."

"Brilliant plan," Shoshana teases, pressing a kiss to her girlfriend's cheek. Marella's heart twists. She wants that. She wants that with Linh.

Maybe they can talk during the tribunal?

"Alright, we're going to brainstorm some key points to hit in our speeches, and some of us will be contacting other LGBTQ+ elves in high positions. Like, at least one, if not more, of the Vackers are queer. And I'm fairly sure Councillor Oralie is aroace, Bronte too. It's unclear how much his position will make a difference, but Sir Tiergan is undoubtedly super gay."

"How do you know all this?" Shalle asks.

"Gaydar," Hayley replies smugly.

Instantly, Shoshana says "She's lying. Some people have reached out to Hayley to thank her for what she's doing."

"And I have a great gaydar!" she insists.

"Okay, love."

Again, Marella wishes for what they have.

The half hour passes quickly, in a flurry of plans and pride flags and queer anthems blasting from a human music device. All too soon, Shoshana glances at the clock and announces it time to go. Nervously, they leap, one by one. Marella tries to meet Linh in the chaos, but doesn't succeed, not until they find seats near each other in Tribunal Hall. Only one seat is between them, occupied by Tam.

 _Okay_ , Marella thinks, unsure what she's agreeing to, if anything. _Okay. Step one, legalize same gender matches in the Lost Cities. Step two, hope against hope Linh likes me. Step three, eat Dex's ice cream heartbroken or listen to his gloating. I don't actually know which is worse._

"I can do this," she whispers, earning a strange glance from Tam. She blushes, but whispers it again, barely louder than a breath. "I can do this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But can she? Can our queer fool do this?


	19. xviii

Marella swallows, her mouth suddenly feeling dry. "Linh," she croaks, cringing at how weak her voice sounds. "Can I... talk to you for a second?" Part of her, more vocal than she'd like, whispers _please say no_. But another part of her dreads the rejection, knowing that Linh is so disinterested and so revolted that she won't even take the time to hear what Marella has to say. Not that she has any idea what that is, even now.

Planning is for suckers.

Thankfully, her second fear is proven wrong as Linh nods, running a hand through her jet black hair so it partially shields her face. Torn between her mind flashing _HOT_ in giant, neon letters and wishing she could still see Linh's beautiful face, Marella blinks away the gay panic and rises to her feet. Her legs are shaking. Why are her legs shaking?

 _Probably because I'm absolutely terrified_ , she answers to her own question, nearly rolling her eyes before catching herself. She doesn't need Linh thinking she's even more of a freak. Nor does she need more judgement from Tam, who clearly thinks she isn't worthy of dating his sister. He might be right. That's beside the point.

In the moment before Linh agreed to talk, Marella feared being turned down even for this conversation and even more brutally rejected from the chance to ever date Linh, but she should have put a lot more effort into dreading the inevitable other outcome; Linh actually wanting this conversation. How could she have hoped for this? It's terrifying, utterly terrifying. Speaking to Linh, with words, and eye contact, while trying to explain how every time Linh smiles, Marella feels her breath catch. How every time Linh laughs, Marella wants to hear the noise as a soundtrack while she spins Linh in elegant circles, dipping her low despite the height difference. How just a small word can make Marella break into a smile like she's just heard the best news of her life.

How she has completely, irreversibly fallen for Linh Song. And maybe it's the best thing that ever happened to her. Maybe it was a terrible idea. But no matter whether or not it's a good thing, it happened. She's fallen for Linh, deeper and deeper in the widening gyre, and she could never come back up, not even if she wanted to.

She has all these thoughts swirling in her head, pretty words that can never quite match the poetry of Linh's silver blue eyes. But she can't say any of it, not out loud. Not to Linh.

Her throat closes up every time she considers it.

The council enters the room, sitting on their throne, and everyone falls silent. Out of respect or fear, it isn't certain, but Marella's silence has to do with neither. The Council is far from her mind, stored away in a box of things she can deal with later, because for now, the prospect of confessing, really confessing, to Linh overshadows everything else. As she walks, the clicking of her shoes against linoleum floors is painfully audible. Unlike her, who is nearly stomping, Linh seems to glide across the floor gracefully. Caught in admiration, Marella neglects to focus on her surroundings. She refocuses after nearly walking into an intricately designed column.

The last time Marella was at tribunal hall, she ignited it with fire. Hopefully, that doesn't happen again. She's the Pyrokinetic, but Linh has set her heart aflame, every part aflame. Set her soul on fire. And the less things on fire, the better, so this building will not be included in that group.

One of Tribunal Hall's many exits finally come into view, so Marella swallows and pushes the door open. It's a pull door. She tries again, and it works. Just outside is a large, marbled arch, and Marella would probably laugh at how much effort the councillors put into making Elementia look so pristine and sophisticated. People can survive in places like Mysterium, where the streets are cluttered and dirty. Even if you want things looking nice, this is a bit exaggerated.

But that's far from her mind right now, as Linh walks through the doorway as well, past where Marella stands holding it open. Her jet black hair swishes as she walks, sweeping against her bare shoulder.

"So... you wanted to talk?" Linh says softly, her sweet voice tying Marella to the ground and making her want to float all at once. Not trusting her voice, Marella nods. "About..." Surely Linh must know, but doesn't speak the end of the sentence. Does she not want to address this? Would she prefer to ignore Marella's feelings, because she doesn't return them? Marella looks down at her feet for a long pause. With the hint of laughter in her voice, Linh adds "You know, there's typically some form of communication when one talks."

Not knowing what she's about to say, Marella opens her mouth. "I..." she starts, brain empty of any words, any way to explain to Linh that Marella wants to kiss her until she looses her breath. To explain to Linh that she's really pretty, and Marella wants to be her world, to taste her candy lip gloss. What words can Marella pick out of this entire language, the one intuitive to her since birth but suddenly gone from her mind? "I..." Marella repeats.

 _Say something,_ she scolds herself. _Anything._

"Do you have a map?" she blurts, cringing as Linh's forehead crinkles in confusion, but unable to stop. "Because I'm lost in your eyes. They're beautiful, silvery blue. Like the ocean on a rainy day. Did you- did you know that?"

"I didn't," Linh says slowly, running her fingers through her hair until it covers her face again.

The force of how idiotic she must seem slams into Marella, making her nearly doubled over. "I'm sorry," she croaks, wishing she could rewind and undo the last few minutes. Or the last few days. Ever since she nearly kissed Linh, really. But she can't undo what she's already done, she can only leave before making this more of a mess. Marella takes a step away from Linh, towards the door. "This was stupid. I shouldn't have- I'll leave."

Ice cold fingers wrap loosely around her wrist, skin brushing against skin. "Stay," whispers Linh, the one word holding layers of hidden treasure, of untold secrets to be whispered at four in the morning. In the same voice, barely above a breath, Linh adds "I wanted to talk to you too."

Slowly, Marella turns around to face Linh, tilting her head back to glance at the Hydrokinetic's face. _Beautiful_. One leg swings forward. The ball of Marella's foot presses gently against the ground before she settles her weight onto it. As she takes another tiny step forward, Linh sidesteps and circles around her, nudging the door. It closes with a click. Again, Marella turns to face Linh in her new position. Is this a dance, one where Marella can place her hands around Linh's waist and hear music playing, if only in her mind, as they close their eyes and pretend they are beneath a moonlight, starry sky? Or are the two simply rotating around each other, like a planet and a star, to always be in sync, but never to touch?

She shakes her head. It doesn't matter, not really, the symbolic meaning behind the steps they take. It's just movement, walking, turning. None of it has meaning, beyond Linh wanting Marella to stay and embarrass herself more while Marella, stupidly, agrees. She licks her lips. "So... where were we?"

"You nearly kissed me," Linh says, not unkindly, but her voice sounds... flat, almost.

"I did," agrees Marella, blushing deeply. Her eyes drift towards Linh's lips, without her permission, and she quickly looks down upon noticing. "I... I really... what I feel for you..." She fumbles for words. They're nowhere to be found, the poetry of Linh's ethereal beauty and overcast ocean eyes evading her until she is left with only fragmented phrases and meaningless jumbles of language. "It's not... totally platonic."

Linh nods slowly. "It seemed that way."

Is it Marella's imagination, or did Linh just take a step closer? Is she imagining their close proximity? Imagining how, if she wanted to, she could reach out and cup Linh's cheeks, stand on her tiptoes, and kiss her for real this time? Again, Marella steals a glance at Linh's lips, and licks her own. "Do you remember when we met?" she asks, words tumbling out unplanned. Again, Linh nods. "We were at Exillium, I think it was my first day, and we were supposed to be levitating. I couldn't do it to save my life. And then you convinced Tam to shadow whisper some tips to me, and it worked for a little while, but then I fell again. You came and helped me up. I've... I've been falling for you since that moment. Figuratively and literally."

She pauses only for a breath, then continues. "You're just... so incredible. Did you know that? You must, otherwise you're even more blind than I am. Everything about you is so beautiful, your hair, the silver tips, your eyes, your smile, the way you hold yourself, your fingers when they're entwined in mine, the clothes you like... just, everything. How does one person end up being so beautiful? You're so pretty it hurts. And it's not just how pretty you are... it's how your laugh is like a voice telling me everything's going to be okay, and just a word from you can make me want to talk for hours, and you decided to help me before you even knew my name, and you're so strong, and brave, and a million other great things, Linh, you're just so _wonderful_ , and I really, really like you, but I don't want to screw this up, so now I'm rambling-"

"Wow," says Linh, softly. Almost tenderly. Her cheeks are pink. And Marella can't speak. From awe, yes, from gay panic, definitely some of that, but also, Linh's finger is gently pressed against her lips, silencing her. Every molecule of Marella's body heats up, exploding with excitement. "I... thank you." She takes her finger away, but Marella still feels it, a phantom against her lips. She wants to grab Linh's hand and press a soft kiss to her knuckles.

But she doesn't. Linh falls silent, for a long time. Long enough that Marella grows convinced she isn't going to say anything. She bites her lip. Beyond thanking her, Linh doesn't have anything to say. No admission of returned feelings. Had Marella been hoping for that? _Stupid, stupid girl_. Maybe their friendship is still salvageable?

"Um..." Marella starts, eloquently. "It was stupid of me to... shouldn't have... I shouldn't have... I'm sorry I dumped that on you. Probably overstepped or something." She squeezes her eyes shut, feeling eyelashes sweep against her cheeks. "I'm really sorry. Can we just... it'd be great if we forgot if this ever happened. If that's okay with you. Really. It was so stupid for me to try to be super romantic when you didn't feel the sa-"

"No!" Linh exclaims, and Marella has no idea what she's disagreeing with. But Linh continues. "No, no, I'm sorry I made you think that. No, I was trying to think of how to tell you how... Marella... I think you're really great too. Ever since we started the gay revolution, and I realized how brave you were for taking such a risk to stand up for what you believed in, I... what I feel for you isn't totally platonic either. I really like you, Marella. I like you a lot."

There are fireworks in Marella's head. And smoke rising from her hand. Frantically, she smothers the heat against her flannel. Still, not even the fire can keep her from the pure elation flooding her body. She wants to scream it from the rooftops, light up the night sky with little explosions of celebration, tell the entire world that Linh likes her back. That the most amazing girl in the world wants to be her girlfriend.

"You- you do?" says Marella, hating the way her voice cracks, too happy to care.

Linh gives a small smile, and just for a moment, everything is right in the world. "Of course."

It feels like reciting from a script, as though they're actors, preforming a play Marella has never learned the lines for. Singing a duet they've never rehearsed. But the music will be beautiful anyway.

"So... what do we do now?" Linh asks.

Maybe rehearsing would have been beneficial. But Marella improvises, taking a step forward so she and Linh are nearly face to face. (Forehead to chin, whatever.) "I can think of some ideas," she says boldly. Brazenly. It's unclear where this confidence is coming from, maybe from a boost that Linh likes her, _likes her_ , but whatever the reason, she loves it. When Marella tilts her head back, she can see Linh's eyes dilating as she licks her lips. She smirks, taking Linh's hand in hers before kissing the back of it.

Her confidence melts away, and she looks up at Linh. Nervously. Hopefully. "Was that okay?" she asks. "Or should I not have-"

"No," says Linh, sounding almost breathless, cheeks red. "No. I liked that."

She slumps in relief. "Okay. Sorry, I don't really know what's good and what's... well, I'm really... really bad at this."

"I'm new to this too, you know," says Linh. "Exillium doesn't exactly offer good dating opportunities."

Marella swallows. "Let me know if you want me to stop," she whispers, before reaching a hand up and letting it brush a strand of hair out of Linh's face, remaining tangled at the side of her head. She stretches to her tiptoes, stomach flipping with nerves, but excitement bouncing around her chest. Their noses touch. Linh's breath warms her cheeks. Marella's breath catches before she softly breathes "Then it's a good thing we broke the rules."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A historian poked his head into the room. "Just gals being pals!" he announced. Marella and Linh gave him weird looks, and he left.
> 
> No, that was an actual line I wrote when I got stuck.
> 
> Sappho and her friend are proud of me. *Sniffs dramatically* I WON'T LET YOU DOWN, SAPPHO!
> 
> But seriously, this is one of my favorite things I've ever written. Please comment and let me know what you thought!


	20. xix

Their lips brush. Just the barest hint of a kiss, a sip of water in a desert of gay loneliness. Marella wants more, almost an insatiable thirst, to kiss Linh until she can barely breath, roughly, passionately. She wants to tangle her hand through Linh's hair, feel fingers at the hem of her flannel shirt. To press her lips to Linh's collarbone and let the world tilt of its axis from excitement. Marella wants more, more, more.

That kiss, the one Linh abruptly pulls away from, is perfect. Fireworks, chemistry, sparks, everything she'd dreamed of. Linh's lips are soft and sweet. It couldn't have lasted much more than a second, but it felt like it could have lasted for forever to Marella. In a good way. It wasn't at all unsatisfactory, but kissing Linh is a drug, one Marella has grown addicted to after her first time. She craves it again, that perfect euphoria over and over.

But Linh is taking a step back, shuddering slightly, and Marella's heart splinters. Did she ruin everything? Just when it was going well, did she make it a mess again? Brow furrowing, she checks her breath. Why couldn't she manage to not ruin this, set it aflame and let it burn like she does everything else? "Did I... did I do something wrong?" she asks slowly, haltingly.

"No," Linh says, pressing her back to the wall. Her voice sounds strangled, almost. "No, you were great, better than great, but I... I think I'm the problem. I don't..." She tangles her hands in her hair, just the way Marella wanted to do, and buries her face. "I don't think I'm ready to..."

Despite her assurances, the echoing of _MY FAULT_ doesn't quite fade from Marella's mind. "No, yeah, that makes-"

Linh continues, interrupting. Her eyes focus skyward, and her voice is soft. She might be talking to herself instead of Marella. "I love breaking the rules when the rules are terrible, but sometimes, the rigid requirements for my life are hard to escape. Dangerous. Unloveable. Broken. And it's weird... I'm ready to revolt against the world's injustice, no problem, minimal fear, but I'm still too afraid to date a girl." A nervous laugh escapes her. "Especially a cute girl."

Furiously, Marella blushes. The panic of the compliment is almost enough to distract her from Linh. But slowly, her cheeks return to their normal pigment, and Linh's words register. "I... yeah. I understand. Well, I'm not sure I understand the me being cute part. But the rest of it makes sense." She watches as her hand lights up, burning in the air without lighting anything around her aflame. Little bubbles of water form around Linh's hands, just in case. The flame is mesmerizing. Not more beautiful than Linh, but Marella can't take her eyes off it. Eventually, she tears her gaze away. "I'm probably being a little too... enthusiastic. About this. I like you a lot, so I just wanted to rush right in, but... um... yeah. If you're not okay with that, I completely understand. And I can wait. We can go slow. That's probably not the worst idea, considering how much of a disaster I am."

"You're not a disaster," Linh says.

"Um..." starts Marella, giving her an incredulous look. "Need I remind you of the time you found out I had a crush and I ran away before refusing to talk to you for a week?"

"Oh yeah."

She closes her fist, letting the flame go out. "Sorry about that, by the way. You looked really shocked, and I guess I mistook that for disgust, because it made sense in my mind. That someone as awesome as you wouldn't have any chance of liking... well, me." Linh opens her mouth, but Marella plows ahead before she can start talking. "So I panicked. Makes complete sense. I guess I'm also pretty scared of doing this."

"Alright. You're kind of a disaster," Linh says, a little bit of a laugh in her voice. She looks less shaky now, more of her weight on her own feet than the wall. "You're amazing, though. And I'm a disaster too. So when we're both ready... can we be disasters together?"

Offering a hesitant smile, Marella nods. "I like the sound of that." She snaps her fingers again, bringing a tiny flame to her fingertips before letting it burn out. "Should we go back? The tribunal should be starting soon."

Linh tears her eyes away from the smoke still rising. "Yeah. Do you think you'll be going up and talking to the councillors, or just watching the drama unfold?"

"The plan is to just watch and cheer," says Marella, shrugging. This feels almost normal, this conversation, as though they didn't just spill all their feelings and share a kiss. "But who knows whether I'll stick to that?"

"Just don't set the Tribunal Hall on fire this time," offers Linh.

"Deal." Marella stuffs her hands in her pockets to avoid that fate. She looks over at Linh, her eyes meeting the ones she stupidly blurted getting lost in. They stand silently for a moment, staring at each other. Then Linh looks away and starts walking towards the door. She holds it open for Marella, and the quiet of their isolated conversation fades into chatter among audience members while Councillor Noland gives a speech; something about the perfection of elves as a species and the importance of the matchmaking system. Marella can't resist rolling her eyes at this. When she sneaks a glance at Linh, she's doing the same.

Eventually, Noland sits down, and there's a smattering of polite applause. Somehow, Marella has the sneaking suspicion that people are more happy about his speech being over than what he said. Emery's booming voice fills the hall before Marella can point this out to Linh. "Thank you, Councillor Noland," he says. "Now, let us here from the elf that filed this complaint, Wayward Keefe Sencen."

The applause this time is much more thunderous. Keefe smirks, waving his hands as if welcoming the cheers. When the audience finally settles down, he clears his throat and runs a hand through his hair. "So, I'm Keefe, but you may know me better as Lord Hunkyhair, the hot guy that used to go to Foxfire. All the ladies were in love with me- except the lesbian and aromantic ones, of course. And some of the guys liked me too, I'm just that handsome. Haven't gotten any love letters from nonbinary pals, but it's a possibility. And I'm not all good looks- I'm also the mastermind behind not one, but _two_ Great Gulon Incidents! Victims aside, everyone loved those. Even some of the mentors. Although I was banished to Exillium, I went something as a hero."

"Where is this going?" asks Councillor Liora. "We brought you here so you could try to convince us to change a law, not to brag about your... accomplishments."

"I was _getting_ to that," Keefe huffs. "Now, no one can deny that I'm popular. My pranks and such give much needed entertainment to the dull Foxfire days. I'm friends with a lot of people, including _Fitz Vacker_."

His distinct crisp accent calls out "You're doing great, bro!"

Keefe turns in the general direction of the call. "Thanks, bro!" Facing the councillors, he says "See, before all this, I was just a normal bad boy. A hero to fellow prodigies, a great annoyance to the mentors, but liked by the general population. Now, though, some people have noticed injustice in our elf world and started fighting to fix that. And I joined them, coming out as a raging bisexual in the process. Now, instead of receiving compliments, I receive slurs and people telling me I'm a mistake. A disease." His jaw sets, and Marella sees his eyes scanning the audience until they land on his parents.

After a short pause, he tears his eyes away and continues. "Before then, even though I was a wayward, I was... well... liked. And being bi has made all of those people who used to declare their love or give me high fives in detention treat me like I'm contagious, or go to protests against my existence. It's not just me. Who knows how many people had amazing potential to do great things for this world, but because they came out as queer, weren't allowed to anymore? We could have had a future councillor or fantastic mentor or talented physician and stopped them from doing that because they were brave enough to tell us who they love? Or who they are? I've spent the last few weeks hanging out primarily with LGBTQ people, and they're all so _talented._ Why don't you want that sort of talent helping you instead of fighting for their right to exist?"

"I've leave you to think about that," he finishes, nodding to the councillors. "That's all, thank you."

The room erupts into applause, Marella cheering among them. He bows, grinning. Minutes pass with no one calming down. Finally, Councillor Noland takes matters into his own hands and yells "SILENCE!" with his loud voiciferator voice. The room obeys. "Thank you," he says, more quietly. "Would anyone else like the chance to speak?"

Eve stands up in an instant, her turquoise hair brilliantly visible as they walk up to the podium and grab a microphone from Keefe. "You did pretty well, Hunkyhair," she says.

"Why thank you."

"Go cause some chaos while I'm giving my speech, yeah?"

"At your service. You're going to be great."

"I know," they say. "Listen up, peasants, my name is Eve and I'm aromantic. That means I don't want to date people. And... um... yeah. That's why I'm queer. Also 'cause I'm nonbinary. But my big crime is not liking boys or girls or literally anyone. I just want to find a nice QPP and live out my days plotting world domination. What's wrong with that? I'm persecuted because I don't want to date people." She runs a hand through their hair. "But guess who else doesn't want to date people?" Without waiting for an answer, they point at a councillor. "You! And you! And you!" She repeats this for each one. "So yeah, persecute me for not dating if you want to. But remember, doing so means you're also attacking your beloved leaders."

Mirasol stands up, leading the applause. Grinning, she calls out "Yeah, sex is great, but have you tried calling out the elvin council on their hypocrisy?"

"Infinitely better," Eve agrees.

"Also, if you're looking for a queerplatonic partner to plot world domination with, I would not hate that."

She hops down from the podium, leaving their microphone as they high five Mirasol. "Sounds great!"

Marella can't help but grin at the exchange. She looks around the group of other gay revolutionaries, waiting for one of them to go stand up and yell at the councillors so more. For a while, no one does. Finally, Bella stands up. She pushes her glasses up on her nose while walking towards the podium.

"Hey, listen up, social and body dysphoria is a medical condition. The treatment for body dysphoria is medically transitioning, and the treatment for social dysphoria is... guess what... getting to be treated as my actual gender in social situations. This includes using correct pronouns and chosen names. What you're doing is letting people suffer for a medical condition with an easy fix. If I had a broken arm, you'd let me get it fixed. Well, I have the wrong AGAB, so let me fix that. Ask a physician, if you want." She dramatically gestures to Elwin.

"What Bella said is true. I myself am nonbinary and use they/them. If the council wants to illegalize medical transitioning, you'll have to find a new physician for Foxfire."

"Fine," huffs Derek. "Livvy Sonden."

A laugh bursts out from a woman sitting in the audience. "I'm very gay, so good luck with that," says Presumably-Livvy. Marella laughs slightly at her bluntness, and again at the discomfort in Derek's face.

"Fine," he says again. "We'll take your complaints under consideration."

"Good enough!" declares Bella. "Eris?"

In a droning voice, Eris stands up, not bothering to walk up to the podium and says "Historically, when we had more interaction with humans and the cultures of various intelligent species were more merged, elves acknowledged the lack of a rigid gender binary in those other cultures. Some people aren't a boy nor a girl. Facts over feelings, mate."

Shalle snickers at the last line. Most of the councillors, however, look like they would rather be anywhere else. "Would anyone else like to speak?" Velia says.

"Yep!" Cara takes a piece of mallowmelt and gives it to each of the revolutionaries, making a big show out of dramatically and slowly eating it. "Mallowmelt for the gays. No mallowmelt for the homophobes." Marella smiles as she wolfs down her slice.

"Anything else?"

Impulsively, without thinking, Marella bolts to the stand and grabs the microphone, ignoring the way it gets almost too hot to hold. "No matter whether or not you like it, you can't tell me... tell me what I feel. Because I'm still real. My feelings are still real. And it's not like I get to choose who I love. This is who I am, and you can't stop me. We'll fight back until you can't hurt us anymore. We're here, we're queer, so you'd better get used to it."

Applause erupts around her. All Marella can see is Linh, smiling proudly. Even though part of her thinks she might have made a fool of herself, she smiles back, unable to take her eyes off of Linh until she feels a tap on her shoulder. "You did beautifully, Marella," says Hayley. "Mind if I finish?"

"Not at all," says Marella, cheeks red. "Thanks."

"Let me tell you a story," Hayley says. "It's about a girl who fell in love with her best friend. Her best friend was the only person she felt like she could really talk to, and made her smile and laugh like no one else could. The friend always knew what to say when she was upset and always defended the girl when she was bullied. When she was with her friend, she felt truly confident, like she could do anything. When she finally gathered the courage to tell her friend how she felt, her friend felt the same. They loved each other more than anything, and one day got married.

"Now, because I'm very obviously in love with a girl, you all know who the best friend really is. That this is my past with Shoshana, and hopefully, the ending will someday become our future-"

"I accept your proposal!" calls Shoshana, tossing her intricately braided hair behind her.

Hayley flushes bright red. "I- wasn't- um- I- yes. Thank you. I love you." She regains her composure and continues on. "So you all know that story was about a girl. But the thing is, it could just as easily be about a boy. And if it was, all of the people saying our love is fake would say _aww_ and wish the happy couple many congratulations. So at its core, girls loving girls isn't that different from girls loving boys isn't that different from boys loving boys or anyone loving nonbinary people. It's all love. And the gender is important in some ways, but in all the ways that matter, love is always the same. That's what we want. The right for our love to be treated the same, because it is. Our love is the same, and we deserve to feel it without fear. No one should have to be afraid to love who they love."

Marella can't help but sneak a glance at Linh, and feels a rush of satisfaction at finding Linh doing the same.

Everyone in the audience must be tired of cheering, but they go crazy for Hayley anyway. She smiles, almost sadly, and walks down to kiss Shoshana. The councillors stare at each other, likely discussing everything telepathically. Finally, Councillor Emery clears his throat. "We have reached a decision."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Muahahaha. Cliffhanger time.
> 
> To be honest, writing all those rants and arguments were hard for me because... I don't feel like you need *facts* and *evidence* and *explanations* to prove why queer people are allowed to exist. Um? We're? Human? Beings? And? Not? Hurting? Anyone? What more do you need? But I do like what I ended up writing, and if you're ever arguing with a homophobe and/or transphobe, I would be honored should you use my arguments.
> 
> Remember- homophobes don't deserve knees. If any homophobes near you have knees, fix this mistake. After commenting, of course. :P


	21. xx

Emery pauses for dramatic effect, and Marella has never wanted to strangle anyone more in her life. That's a lie. She has wanted to strangle people, especially councillors, many times, with high levels of temptation. And this is one of those times. _Just get on with it already_ , she thinks, or maybe she mutters it, or maybe she screams it. She doesn't know.

Anxiety swirls in her stomach again, as bad as when she was about to confess to Linh. Maybe even worse. Then, which seems like a million years ago after the powerful speeches of this tribunal, her friendship with Linh was at stake. What's at stake now is her rights. The rights of Linh too, and her idol Hayley, and all of her new friends. Twelve individuals, none of whom this decision will actually effect, get to make this decision about the lives of hundreds of elves. Maybe even thousands. This decision rests in the hands of twelve people, and they'd better not screw this up, and they should just _get on with it_ so Marella doesn't have to suffer this torturous wait any longer.

Councillor Emery does not get on with it.

"We've taken into account the words of our..." His lip curls as he spits out _protesters_ , like it's an insult. "...and the words of some matchmakers, as well as other complaints from influential individuals." He doesn't name names, but Marella sees Keefe's gaze flick over to where his parents sit, and she doesn't doubt they had something to do with it. Probably Quan and Mai song as well. Emery continues to drone on about how, although one side was a bit less conventional than others, but they both made valid points...

His speech fades to buzzing in the background. Marella can't pay attention to it, can only focus on the way her breathing quickens and shallows. Can only focus on the cold metal of her seat and her hot fingertips pressing against it.

"... and the requests of the _L, G, B, T_ elves..."

Her chest tightens, growing hotter. She can't breathe, can't breathe, her lungs are filled with fire. This feeling is familiar, achingly so, but Marella simply cannot bring herself to care if she burns down tribunal hall. That was the specific thing she ordered herself not to do when she came here, but the directions of her past self can be ignored in favor of what the flames are telling her to do.

"Marella," whispers Linh. "They're about to tell us. You okay?"

She opens her mouth to explain. Linh, of all people, the Girl Of Many Floods, would understand the way the fire is making it nearly irresistible to avoid giving into their instruction, the desire to let the element consume her. Linh would understand how Marella is nearly losing control of her ability once again, but as soon as she opens her mouth, she closes it again. Rethinks her words. "Yeah, I'm fine," she answers. Her voice sounds hoarse, despite efforts to make it cheerful.

Linh nods. "Good." After a pause, she adds "I really hope we win."

Her voice is like an anchor, keeping her tethered in reality when a large part of her still wants to disappear into her own mind as fire fills her thoughts and her surroundings. Marella forces her mind to think only of Linh's soft voice. To squeeze her hand and say "Yeah, me too."

"You did really well with your speech," says Linh, like she can read Marella's mind and knows her voice is the only thing holding her together right now.

"Thanks."

Before Linh can say anything else, Emery raises his voice. "And now, for our final decision... we are ruling against the requests of Keefe Sencen and the protesters."

Marella's heart splinters, but only for a second, and then fury replaces the grief. How dare they? How _dare_ they decide her existence is a crime, Linh can't legally be female, Hayley and Shoshana can't get married, and the decisions that effect all of Marella's other wonderful, incredible new friends, or queer elves she hasn't even met yet? How _dare_ they enforce this stupid rule that AFAB elves must be girls and like boys, that AMAB elves must be boys and like girls? How dare they continue sending anyone who breaks those rules to Exillium?

Linh says something, but her voice can't calm Marella anymore. The flames are louder. They're calling to her, whispering that she should destroy it all. Burn it to the ground, make it a pile of ashes.

It'd serve those elves right. Those pompous, pretentious councillors, needing to make their building as sparkly and beautiful and impressive as possible. Wanting everything to be as pristine and polished as they picture themselves. Marella hates it. This building can't be so beautiful when it represents such ugliness. No, it must be destroyed.

And she's just the person to do it, smoke rising form her hands, pouring from her fingertips. When she first manifested, she'd watched the flames licking her fingertips with horror, but now, she feels a sort of satisfaction at it. Almost amusement. Distantly, something in the back of her mind explains that it's really, really messed up to be happy about this, but she ignores the voice. Who cares about that? All she cares about is the decision the council just made, and punishing them for it. Everything else is collateral damage, and she can't bring herself to care about that.

Marella loses the control she carefully built up, and she laughs. Laughs as fire shoots towards the Councillors, as Darek yells and stomps on his smoldering cape. Violence is meant to shatter elves' minds, but she laughs as Emery cries out in pain at a burn on his hand. The laughter is hysterical, maniacal. She couldn't stop the fire from pouring from her hands if she wanted to, so it's lucky that she doesn't.

"-ella. _Marella_!" Water splashes atop Marella's carefully crafted flames, turning them to a cloud of steam, and a heavy disappointment washes over Marella. Then, when her head clears; guilt. "Marella, look at me," Linh adds, desperation leaking into her voice.

"Linh?" replies Marella. Her voice is rough, raspy, and vaguely bewildered.

"Will you burn me if I hold your hands?"

Marella takes a moment to consider. Her shoulders shake with shuddering breaths, but she thinks her bout of pyromania has ended. "Probably not."

After declaring it good enough, Linh gently takes Marella's hands in hers and squeezes. "We might have lost this battle, Marella, but we aren't going to lose the war. I promise we aren't. We're going to try again, and we'll never stop fighting."

"We'll never stop fighting," Marella repeats. She doesn't sound like she quite believes it. She doesn't know if she quite believes it. But she repeats it again. "We'll never stop fighting."

"Never." Linh brushes a strand of hair out of Marella's sweaty face, letting her fingertips linger. "Will you be okay if I go borrow Hayley's megaphone and give a short speech?" Not trusting her voice, Marella nods. "Okay. I'll come back soon. Keep breathing, you'll be okay." Not trusting that, Marella nods. Linh gives a little wave and walks off, leaving Marella to breathe heavily and watch the fallout from her loss of control.

Most of the revolutionaries actually seem to admire it. They can't have very positive feelings towards the councillors either, probably got at least a twinge of satisfaction from their pain. Nobility, on the other hand, is horrified, as are the councillors. Even though shame stings Marella at how maniacal she'd been, she can't say she quite cares what the noble homophobes think of her.

Shoshana has to physically restrain Hayley from attacking the council. To Marella's delight, Tam and Keefe have disappeared into a corner and are talking in voices she can't hear, even if she eavesdrops. The first revolutionary to notice Marella is Shalle, who nudges her gently. "You okay?"

"Not really," admits Marella.

"Yeah."

They fall silent. Marella's only thought is a constant chorus of _don't lose control, don't lose control, don't lose control._ She clenches and unclenches her fists, carefully watching for even the hint of a spark. Her attention from that is only torn away by Linh clearing her throat. "Hey, everyone, my name is Linh Song, I'm a trans girl and I also really like girls. Romantically, that is. So I'm very queer. And, like all queer people, I'm upset by the council's new decision to continue oppressing people like me. Continuing to throw us in Exillium because we don't fit their cisgender heterosexual mold.

"Earlier, I was listening to all of my friends' speeches, and one line really stuck out. When Hayley said 'No one should have to be afraid to love who they love.' Because what the council teaches, when they threaten queer people with banishment, is that we do have to be afraid of loving who we love and being who we are if we aren't cishet. And, like a queer fool, I listened to their advice. Their rules, that being AMAB meant I was a boy or that being a girl meant I couldn't like girls. But I'm sick of that, I'm sick of following their rules. Of continuing to be afraid to love who I love and be who I am. Right now, I have to make a decision who to listen to- Hayley or the council. And I'm choosing to follow Hayley's advice. I'm choosing to not be afraid anymore."

Linh swallows, and despite the bad news everyone just received, a smile splits her face. "I'm done being afraid. So... Marella Aster Redek, will you be my girlfriend?"

Marella doesn't hear the shocked gasps of the nobility. Doesn't hear the _aww_ s of her friends. Doesn't hear anything except Linh's voice, echoing in her head. _We'll never stop fighting._ She's going to fight, against the council's rules, against them telling her she should be afraid to love who she loves. She'll fight. Like Linh, she'll abandon fear. "Yes," she says, the words tasting nearly as sweet as Linh's lips. A giddy laugh bubbles from her, or maybe it's a happy sob. "Yes, I will."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So much in this chapter! The pyromania! The council needing to lose their kneecaps! The ending! I had a vague idea of that dialogue (the not being afraid anymore bit) in my head for quite a while now, and it came out (haha) even better than I expected! Though that is a pretty low bar. Still... I just... KASHJFKASDJFDKSAJFDSKAFJSDAKFJDSAKDSFJASKDGHSDAKFJASDKGHASDKFJDSAKGHD.
> 
> Ahem. I'm okay.
> 
> Apparently this is at 99 comments, so... would anyone mind making it 100?


	22. xxi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter fdgajghsdkj

_We'll never stop fighting._

It isn't always easy to keep fighting all the time, to never stop. Although Marella runs to join Linh on the podium and kisses her like she'd been wanting to for forever, and cheering erupts from the revolutionaries, some of the noble elves in Tribunal Hall start booing. She runs her fingers through Linh's jet black hair and feels Linh's cool fingers cupping her cheeks and kisses as fiercely as she can, pretending.

Pretending the reaction is only positive.

Pretending there aren't people who now hate them, just because they dared to put fear behind them and fall in love.

Pretending the council didn't just rule against the entire LGBTQ community.

Pretending their happy ending will come without a fight.

Marella knows it's only pretend, but for as long as her lips are touching Linh's, it feels like it's all real. The carefully constructed fantasy gives her the illusion of an easy happy ending. But the second they separate, she remembers it was all pretend. It won't be easy. If Marella wants a happy ending with Linh, she's going to have to fight. She doesn't want to have to fight. But she'll never stop fighting.

_We'll never stop fighting._

It isn't always easy to keep fighting all the time, to never stop. For a while, Marella had been slowly gaining control over her Pyrokinesis, able to keep her hands from warming every time emotion spikes, or stopping the sparks before they start a fire. But after she nearly burned the Council to ashes, she's sent spiraling down a pit of relapse into pyromania.

The only time she feels at home is when smoke is rising from her fingertips. The desire to destroy the world is a constant nagging at the back of her mind, a whisper no matter what she's doing. Sometimes it rises to a scream. Impossible to ignore.

Marella lights matches to watch the flames swallow the entire thing. She writes her secrets on paper and burns it to nothing. She's mesmerized by fires in the fireplace, can never tear her eyes away. Sometimes, she zones out, grabs a leaping crystal, and reappears in Eternalia with a fiery hand against the walls of a councillor's castle.

It's terrifying. Marella is terrified of her Pyrokinesis. Worse, she's terrified of herself.

But Linh is there, always, even when Marella does everything in her power to make Linh see how dangerous she is, how terrifying, how absolutely unworthy of such an angel. "I'm not an angel," Linh says quietly, over and over, even though she is. "I know what it's like to lose control. I'm the girl of many floods."

Marella shakes her head every time. "You're still an angel. Being the girl of many floods doesn't define you."

"And being the girl of many flames doesn't define you either," says Linh, pressing a soft kiss to Marella's forehead. And for the time being, she's convinced, willing to see that maybe, underneath the pyromania, she's a good person. Dangerous, but maybe worthy of good things. Maybe, maybe she can convince herself of this. Maybe she can look past the girl of many flames label that's been whispered to her, the one she's taken to calling herself, the words written on the papers she burns. Maybe that's only part of who she is.

Maybe somewhere underneath is _Marella_. The lesbian disaster, queer fool. The one who loves her girlfriend more than anything else, a hopeless romantic when it comes to sweet gestures. The one who melts when she's kissed on the forehead. The one who steals a suit from Dex and sneaks into a Foxfire dance with Linh. The one who dresses in oversized flannel and laughs with her friends, which includes the idol she's never quite stopped fangirling over. The one who can't sing to save her life but still scream girl in red at the top of her lungs. The one who speaks to her family for the first time since the tribunal and moves back in, no matter what the council says. The one who spends weekends with Dex and babysits the triplets and is unofficially adopted by his parents. The one who never stops fighting for what she believes in.

Maybe that Marella is still somewhere, underneath the girl of many flames. And even though it's difficult, almost impossible, she'll practice in ability training with Linh until she can control her Pyrokinesis. She's improving, but it's a long road. Still, she'll never stop fighting.

_We'll never stop fighting._

It isn't always easy to keep fighting all the time, to never stop. Bit by bit, the queer revolution gains support, but as they get bigger, more hate starts firing at them to. It's overwhelming, to prepare oneself for a day of protesting, of wearing rainbow eyeshadow and waving flags and screaming until their lungs hurt, of cheering as Keefe and Tam kiss while holding their middle fingers up to the crowd, of blasting girl and red and simply holding hands with someone of the same gender, unable to let go because Linh is the only thing that makes her feel safe, only to be met with denial, the information that they don't exist, it's just a phase, they're just pretending, just want to be special snowflakes. And sometimes, people do believe they're different. But they hate anyone who's different, so they respond with ugly words. Freaks. Dykes. Queers, but it's not a compliment in their mouths.

Broken. They call her broken.

But she would rather be broken and with her friends, with Linh, then be like _them_. They don't like it when she tells them that, but that only serves to make her happier. She attends protests weekly, and the hate groups get more vocal, but the group of protesters get more and more people.

The biggest scandal of the Lost Cities occurs when Biana and Fitz Vacker publicly show support for the goals of the revolution, then proceed to come out as lesbian and aroace, respectively. Their father, Alden Vacker, marches up to the stage they're speaking on and orders them to tell the world it was a prank, or they can no longer live at Everglen. Before Biana or Fitz can say anything, Della follows and comes out as polysexual. After the most public divorce ever, she forms what's called a "civil union" with Livvy Sonden. As far as Marella can tell, it's a wedding, just without the legal permission. Each and every one of the revolutionaries attends the wedding. Marella gets to set Alden Vacker on fire as he tries objecting. It's an incredible experience.

With the wealth and fame of the Vacker-Sondens on their side, they're able to buy a house and convert it into a shelter for LGBTQ teens kicked out by their parents. Della manages to hire goblins to guard the shelter. Tam and Linh are the first to move in, and many follow. It's depressing to see how many people had been disowned, but comforting to see that finally, they have a place to go.

And somehow, the issue of adoption opportunities for same-sex couples and aroace adults goes through the council, possibly on the grounds that any parentless elves have already been "corrupted" by the gays. Some former councillors adopt, confirming Eve's theory that lots of councillors are aroace. Many of the teens living in their shelter find homes. Elwin and their partner adopt Keefe. Tiergan and Prentice, who've also formed a civil union, adopt Tam and Linh.

Sure, there are small victories. But for each one, a crushing failure.

Both the revolution and the council were fighting, and while the revolution had the numbers and the determination, the council had more power. And the revolutionaries were fools for forgetting that, even for a second. The council held the power, so if they wanted make it a law that LGBTQ elves couldn't be nobility, or that matchmakers could be fired for suggesting same sex matches, or that transition technology should become less accessible, they can. And they advise the revolutionaries not to forget that. It doesn't leave their minds, this knowledge that they are teenagers and the council are the twelve most powerful elves in the Lost Cities. But they ignore it. No matter what the council does, they can't stop any queer elves from being themselves, and Marella refuses to adhere to their expectations for her. Or to fear them any longer. Because she'll fight back, she'll be stronger, and she has the power of a revolution on her side.

 _We'll never stop fighting_ , Linh says, Hayley repeats, Marella agrees. But it's so, so hard.

Exillium is completely redesigned. It's no longer a place for waywards to be punished, it's a place where queers go to learn how to be proper cishets. Marella stops attending, opting instead to train her skills with some elves who'd been going to Exillium for a long time. Still, some regents try to enforce this conversion. It's sickening.

Livvy, Elwin, and Kesler sell transition elixirs as discretely as they can. Hayley and Shoshana hold a school dance for everyone who couldn't take a partner of the same gender to Foxfire with them. All of the revolutionaries band together and infiltrate Exillium, changing it from a place where people are taught to unlearn queer corruption into a place where people can unlearn internalized homophobia and transphobia. (It's rather depressing to see how long that takes.) With the help of Technopaths like Dex, they hack into every piece of technology in the Lost Cities to give a presentation on LGBTQ education.

The gay revolution does everything it can. But LGBTQ elves still live in fear. And nothing seems to be working.

Real change only comes when an agender bisexual elf tries to kill xemself. Elwin saves xem, but it's a closer call than anyone would have preferred. When xe recovers, xe presses charges against the council for their involvement in conversion therapy, which encouraged suicide. It seems like a miracle, but Councillor Emery, who proposed the _changes_ in Exillium, is given responsibility for xyr attempt, and kicked off the council. He's replaced by Grady Ruewen. That's the second miracle. He'd privately shown support for the LGBTQ rights movement, his vote changes the council's stance on LGBTQ issues to a tie, and the tiebreaker vote is Quinlin Sonden, who supports his ex-wife Livvy and, consequently, the entire movement as well.

Conversion therapy is banned. Being queer is no longer illegal, and queer elves are allowed back into the nobility. Transition technology is more accessible, and gender can be changed on legal documents- with nonbinary genders being added as an option. Foxfire teachers are obligated to include LGBTQ elves in their lessons. Same sex matches are possible. Same sex marriage is legal.

Shoshana publicly proposes to Hayley not even a minute after that last decision was made. Her ring forms rainbows when light reflects off of it.

The rules have changed. _The rules have changed._ The rules that oppressed Marella, forced her into the mold of a perfect heterosexual, kicked her out when she couldn't conform, and taught her she would never find her happy ending... they're gone. They've changed, and maybe someday, someday soon, people like her won't have to suffer the same way. The rules that say girls have to like boys and can't date girls; the ones that say she can't be a Pyrokinetic. The Exillium rules, forbidding her from showing her face or talking or, above all, falling in love.

Marella broke the rules. And she'd break them again. For fun. For herself. For a silver eyed hydrokinetic. As long as unfair rules exist, it's Marella's personal belief that rules are made to be broken. Not just broken. Shattered. Demolished. Destroyed beyond repair.

_Break the rules._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not me encouraging my readers to start a revolution... (eyes emoji)
> 
> But seriously. This is the revolution fic with a side of Marellinh that I never knew I needed, but I'm so glad I wrote it. This is the revenge against homophobes and queer validation that I always knew I needed, but didn't think it would actually turn out well. I'm glad it did. And I'm so glad all of you were here to read it with me. Thank you all. And I'm so, *so* sorry you had to put up with me.
> 
> (No I'm not. Muahahahaha.)
> 
> Please comment, and I have a Sokeefitz oneshot called "Jealousy" if you want to check that out? Hint hint hint?
> 
> With love, rainbows, and deadly bananas,
> 
> Simone.


End file.
